OpenAI's DevDay opened Tuesday to chants, not applause.
More than a dozen labor and community groups rallied outside the developer conference at San Francisco's Fort Mason, marching in a circle and chanting, "Sam Altman, get off it, put people over profit." Demonstrators dressed in cardboard robot costumes carried signs, including one spelling out "PEOPLE OVER PROFIT" and a large orange banner demanding OpenAI "Drop the ICE contract." Sponsors of the rally included Bay Resistance, the Tech Workers Coalition, the Service Employees International Union, San Francisco Rising, and the San Francisco Labor Council.
The lineup matters more than the slogans. These are established labor and civic organizations, not a scattered group of activists, choosing to stage a coordinated protest at a company's flagship product event. That is a different kind of pressure than a social media pile-on, and it signals that OpenAI's government contracting decisions are now a labor issue, not just a talking point.
A cardboard robot costume is a cheap prop, but the demand behind it, a public accounting of who OpenAI's technology serves, will still be there after the DevDay banners come down.