Make an Email Address

We recommend that you make a new email address for your local region. At first, it will service 1 Stop AI chapter, but may eventually be used by multiple Stop AI chapters as Stop AI expands.

We would prefer that you use Proton Mail and the domain @proton.me. You can use the free plan.

Create an email address in the form stopai#####@emailservice.com where ##### is the name of your general location. We recommend using the name of your state, province, or multi-city region, depending on how populated your local region is.

If You're Not Ready to Hold Events

We hope you can eventually hold meetings & protests. People are more willing to engage in and join a movement when they can participate in events of that movement. Furthermore, it's easier to provide people with an in depth understanding of the risks & harms of AI, present & future, when they are seated in a private setting, as opposed to standing in a public place.

If You Are Ready to Hold Events

The 4 main types of events Stop AI holds are:

1)Intro meetings

2)Organizer meetings

3)Protest prep events

4)Protests

In the following sections, you will learn how to set up a meeting, guidelines for holding a meeting, things to do before a protest, guidelines for holding a protest, and much more.

Good Places for Meetings

A good meeting space is

1)Clean.

2)Containing enough empty space.

3)Quiet enough.

Generally, we've had our meetings in bars and restaurants, but some of our 1st meetings were at the library. If the weather is good, feel free to hold a meeting at a public park or backyard, if you have enough chairs.

Intro Meetings vs Organizer Meetings

In the beginning, the only kind of meetings you'll have are intro meetings. People who came to previous meetings will return, but new people who had just seen a flyer, poster or internet post will continue to come in every week. Recurring members will benefit by learning more about the mission of Stop AI, and gaining secondhand experience in watching the education of others in the mission of Stop AI.

To refine your own knowledge of the present harms of AI, the future risks of AI, and the power of nonviolent civil disobedience, visit https://stopai.info/learn for videos and a list of books.

Of course, eventually, you will yearn to have more time with your recurring members and less time with new members. Whenever a new person, who may or may not return ever again, arrives, it's time to cease organizing and start presenting. Organizing must take place eventually.

Only invite people to organizer meetings if you believe they make great organizers, ie are personable and competent enough to bring more people to the movement.

Guide for Holding Meetings

Intro Meetings: the topic is how AI is a risk and harm in the present and future, as well as how we can stop it with nonviolent civil disobedience. Try to present a longer and more detail version of the pitch you give while flyering. Answer relevant questions. Encourage newcomers to share their concerns about AI.

Organizer Meetings: the topic is how to help build a mass movement to achieve a permanent global ban on AGI. Discuss opportunities like coalition building with other groups, places to protest, and potential debates, podcasts, or interviews you could be a part of. Discuss modes of outreach, fine tuning flyer designs and practice explaining the topic in a short and concise way. The core organizers should have a list of things to discuss before the meeting, and do their best to facilitate productive discussions where everyone feels their input is being considered fairly.

Regardless of the meeting type, facilitators should try to ensure the discussion stay on topic, and that the people attending leave feeling that it was a positive experience. People should want to return every week. If a member is getting aggressive and obnoxious towards everyone, raising their voice and presenting a demanding tone, try to de-escalate or pull the person aside to discuss how their behavior is not productive.

Good Schedules for Protests

Once you feel you’ve had enough meetings to amass a reliable group of organizers, it’s time to prepare for a protest. Protests can receive news coverage and greatly improve the popularity of your local chapter.

It could be valuable to have the protests occur on a certain day of the month every month, for example, every 4th Friday. This would allow you to write "Protest ##/## & every 4th Friday” on flyers & posters.

Good Places to Protest

The best places to protest are anything in the AI supply chain, ideally a company that is actively pursuing the development of AGI/ASI. It can also be at a datacenter or GPU/CPU manufacturer supporting AI development.

If you can't find an obvious link in the AI supply chain in your area to protest, consider protesting in front of your local or state/provincial government buildings.

What to Do Before a Protest

Try to find websites where local activists, in your area, post events. Post the details of your protest on there as soon as possible, including a Luma link, which we'll get into later.

Give yourself at least 2 months before your first protest. Try to get your chapter on a schedule of having one protest a month.

Call or leave a voicemail for every person you know about the protest 2 weeks beforehand and 1 week beforehand, reminding them they get a free shirt and how this is their responsibility as a citizen. Text or dm them 3 days beforehand.

If you know someone IRL but don't have their phone number, then email or dm them 2 weeks beforehand and 1 week beforehand.

Download this file and modify it to create your own press release. https://drive.proton.me/urls/P8RVJKM6ZC#8aLnQbfHBq3g

If you prefer Google Docs, visit this link instead. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LbuZp3JYT5C1SEKIYmc3heiaraXEOG-g

Compile a list of local radio stations, TV stations, newspapers & magazines. 2 days before the protest, email the first one, then call them immediately after. Here is the script:

"Hi, I'm an organizer with Stop AI, we are having a protest at the at in at to on , can you send in a news team?"

Before the call is over, make sure to tell them

"Please put it on your calendar."

Send an email to the next news outlet, then call them immediately after. Repeat the process, one by one, for each news source.

The day of the protest, email and call the same list of news outlets in the morning, using the same script.

Events Right Before the Protest

Consider having a signmaking event a few days before the protest. Have paintbrushes, paint, markers & posterboards for people to create protest signs with.

When you get large enough, consider having a shirtmaking event a few days before the protest. At some point, we will add a tutorial here for how to screen print shirts.

For now, if you are leading a Stop AI chapter, you have 2 options:

1)Visit https://stopai.info/shop/p/stop-ai-unisex-classic-tee and order some shirts.

2)Depending on the country you live in, it may be cheaper for you to go to a local custom shirt printing service. Use the PNG on the left to create a custom shirt design resembling the shirt on the right. For the shirt, use the RGB color D61010 or get as close to it as possible. Visit https://drive.proton.me/urls/MMTNT4REAM#9jesUb2T95Ej to download the PNG.

Please have at least 30 Stop AI shirts before your next protest. Make sure to have shirts of XXL, XL, L, M, and S sizes.

How to Hold a Protest

The number one rule of protests is to avoid violence. At the protest, make sure that everyone you speak to understands that using violence makes your rivals look better, and that consistently using nonviolence allows for the most participation. A nonviolent movement can include participation from the elderly, the disabled, children, and people of all walks of life, while a violent movement requires an equal number of physically fit, combat trained individuals. This is the primary reason that nonviolence is more effective than violence, and the primary reason that Stop AI will never taint itself with violence.

People may stop and ask questions or show support for the protest. It can be helpful to use this opportunity to get their contact information. Here is an example of registration form you can use. Consider printing some out ahead of time and bringing them with you along with clipboards and pens. You can also have people from your group standing a block or two away, wearing a Stop AI shirt, handing out flyers & telling people to visit the nearby protest to get a free Stop AI shirt.

Try to have someone record videos and photos of your event, for you to later post to social media and show to people at your meetings. You can also send these to our official email or social media accounts and we can promote them for you.

Here is a list of chants that we regularly use:

Stop AI
or we're all gonna die

AI steals your work
AI steals your job

Human thoughts
Not robots

When our lives are under attack, what do we do?
Stand up fight back

You should have core organizers, and at least a few participants, yell a short speech into the megaphone at the protest. Core organizers should prepare a rough outline of what they will say into the megaphone. Try to keep each person's speech to less than 4 minutes.

We've created versions of the poster, flyer and pamphlet you can customize in Microsoft Word, Google Docs & LibreOffice.

We recommend printing posters for attaching to public places like traffic poles.

You may want to experiment between distributing flyers and pamphlets. One might be better than the other depending on where and how you’re doing the distribution. Flyers should be cut in half using a page trimmer, while pamphlets should be folded in half with the event information facing out.

Also, depending on where you live, the aesthetics of either the drawing or photoshop might appeal better to the residents of your local area. Feel free to choose one or the other.

NOTE: The Proton Drive previews do not accurately reflect how the files look when you use it in the correct application. The actual files will resemble the preview images provided above.

If You Don't Want to Use QR Codes and Event Registration

In our experience, having QR codes and event registration pages has been helpful in getting pedestrians to come to our events after seeing a poster or flyer. They are more likely to remember an event if they see its webpage, and especially if they RSVP for it.

If you don't want to use QR codes, feel free to right click and delete the placeholder QR codes in the flyer template file once you’ve downloaded it.

Click Here to Skip to Customization Instructions->

If You Do Want to Use QR Codes and Event Registration

First, you'll need an event manager to link to. Our event manager of choice is Luma.

1)Go to lu.ma and click "Sign In" at the top right corner.

2)Enter the email you created earlier.

3)We recommend that you also enter your phone number.

4)Download this low quality Stop AI logo to use as your profile picture.

If you accidentally skipped this step, that's ok, step 7) will take care of it.

5)Name your profile "Stop AI *Your General Location*" the same location that you used in the email you created earlier.

It's alright for this lu.ma account to service multiple chapters, just as the Stop AI Bay Area lu.ma services San Francisco, Oakland & Berkeley. Keep in mind that, while Stop AI expands, you can always change your Luma username & account name later.

6)Once you've made your account, click on your profile picture icon in the top right, click Settings in the drop down menu, and go to Account.

8)Make your description "Aspiring non-profit dedicated to connecting communities against the threat of harmful Artificial Intelligence."

9)Enter @stopai_info as the social link for YouTube, X, Instagram, and TikTok.

10)Enter https://www.stopai.info as the social link for a website.

Create Meeting QR Codes

1)Create Event in the top right corner.

2)Name it "Stop AI Meeting ####" Where #### is more specific

than your general region, like a city name.

3)For now, download this high quality Stop AI logo to use as the event picture.

Once you have a group of 7+ people at a meeting, take a photo and use that as your picture for meetings from now on. Feel free to update the meeting photo again once you have 12+ people at a meeting, and again when you have 16+ people at a meeting.

4)When you want to make another meeting, go to the previous events tab and click on the same picture.

5)Add your event location, date & time.

6)The meeting descriptions we use are always a variant of "Lets figure out how to stop AI from taking our jobs and/or killing us all." Feel free to come up with your own description. If your meeting is in the patio, please write that down in your description.

7)Try to have at least 3 meetings before your first protest. Repeat the steps 1-6 to make multiple meetings. Later, try to have at least 2 meetings before subsequent protests. We would prefer that you have at least one meeting every week, but, if you're too busy, we understand having a meeting only once every 2 weeks.

8)Visit this site to make your QR codes. It's free and doesn't require an account.

9)Make sure the text tab is selected.

10)Type lu.ma/##### where ##### is your Luma username after the @. This is a link to your Luma profile page, where people can see every event that you currently have scheduled, including the meetings. Doing it like this means that you won't have to change the flyer QR code after every meeting.

NOTE: After your 1st successful Stop AI intro meeting, you should have a video call with us and we will link your Luma profile page in a list of Stop AI chapters on our events page.

11)Set the size for 1000 x 1000 Px.

12)Create the meeting QR Code.

13)Download the PNG.

14)Give the meeting QR code PNG a good name.

Create Protest QR Codes

1)Create Event in the top right corner.

2)Name it "Stop AI Protest at ####" Where #### is the entity or building you'll be protesting.

3)For now, download this high quality Stop AI logo to use as the event picture.

After your first protest, try to get a selfie with as many attendants as possible and use that as your picture for protests from now on. Feel free to update the photo again once you have even more people come to a protest.

4)When you want to make another protest, go to the previous events tab and click on the same picture.

5)Add your event location, date & time.

6)Here is a passage you can use as part of your description. Feel free to change this to fit your protest, adding things that are more relevant to the building you'll be protesting at.

"2,700 cited AI researchers said in a poll that there is a 19% chance of AGI causing human extinction, and Geoffrey Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize for his work in AI in 2024, says there is a 50% chance of AGI causing human extinction. Some experts, like Dr. Roman Yampolskiy, say the risk of extinction is 99.99%. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, when asked about the worst case for AGI, said it could be, "lights out for all of us." Sam Altman has also said AGI will arrive in 2025.​

​​It is impossible to have experimental evidence that the behavior of an AGI will stay safe indefinitely and that AGI will never want something that will lead to our extinction similar to how we as Homo Sapiens often caused the extinction of many less intelligent species.

​​We demand that the US government shut down OpenAI, close any other company building AGI, and permanently ban the development of AGI."

7)Visit this site to make your QR codes. It's free and doesn't require an account.

8)Make sure the text tab is selected.

9)Copy paste the URL of the Luma protest page without https://www. and without everything after the question mark

NOTE: After your 1st successful Stop AI intro meeting, you should have a video call with us and you will get the opportunity to use a stopai.info URL that will redirect the protest page every month.

10)This makes the QR code less complex, with larger dots, which is easier to for a phone to scan at a small size.

11)Set the size for 1000 x 1000 Px.

12)Create the protest QR Code.

13)Download the PNG.

14)Give the protest QR Code PNG file a good name.

1)If you're using Google Docs, click “File,” then click “Make a copy” in the resulting menu.

2)Right click the pre-existing meeting QR code.

3)If you don’t want to use QR codes, delete it.

If you do want to use QR codes…

In Word, in the resulting menu, select "Change Picture" then select "This Device". In Google Docs, in the resulting menu, select "Replace Image" then select "Upload from Computer". In LibreOffice, in the resulting menu, click “Replace”.

4)In the file explorer window, select the meeting QR Code PNG you just saved.

5)The meeting QR code in the document should now be changed.

6)Paste the Luma profile page link under the QR code.

7)Fill out the 1 or 2 meeting text boxes.

Use this format if you have plans for a one off meeting:

Meeting *Date*, *Start time*-*End time*, *Name of place (ex. Vern's Tavern, Community Center, Library)*, *Street Address*, *City*.

Use this format if you have plans for recurring meetings at the same place:

Meeting *Date* & Every *Recurring time* of *the Month/Every 2nd Month/Every 4th Month/the Week*, *Start time*-*End time*, *Name of place (ex. Vern's Tavern, Community Center, Library)*, *Street Address*, *City*.

8)Right click the pre-existing meeting QR code.

9)If you don’t want to use QR codes, delete it.

If you do want to use QR codes…

In Word, in the resulting menu, select "Change Picture" then select "This Device". In Google Docs, in the resulting menu, select "Replace Image" then select "Upload from Computer". In LibreOffice, in the resulting menu, click “Replace”.

10)In the file explorer window, select the protest QR Code PNG you just saved.

11)The protest QR code in the document should now be changed.

12)Paste the Luma protest page link under the QR code.

13)Fill out the 1 or 2 protest text boxes.

Use this format if you have plans for a one off protest:

Protest *Date*, *Start time*-*End time*, *Name of place (ex. Meta HQ, CoreSite Datacenter, City Hall)*, *Street Address*, *City*.

Use this format if you have plans for recurring protests at the same place:

Meeting *Date* & Every *Recurring time* of *the Month/Every 2nd Month/Every 4th Month/the Week*, *Start time*-*End time*, *Name of place (ex. Meta HQ, CoreSite Datacenter, City Hall)*, *Street Address*, *City*.

14)In Word & LibreOffice, save a file copy. In Google Docs, Google should have autosaved but for the sake of secure archiving, save a Docx file copy.

15)In Word, Ctrl+A to select all then change the text color from white to black (yes, it's actually white but looks black. This is what happens when it's in front of a background image. When the text is black, it will look white).

16)In Word & LibreOffice, export it as a PDF. In Google Docs, go straight to "Print", then select Save to PDF from the printing interface (using "Save as a PDF" will yield a glitched file).

17)When printing any of these files, always use the printer setting “no fit” or “actual fit”.

For pamphlets, fold them in half along the long side, with a crease in between the event information side and the Homelessness/Environmental Damage side of page 1. Page 1 should be facing out. When you open the pamphlet, page 2 should be visible.



For half page flyers, use “double sided short edge flip”. We use a paper trimmer to cut the pages in half. If you don't want to buy one, you should be able to use one at an Office Depot, FedEx, Kinkos, UPS, Staples, or library.