Protest events have been growing since the first two-man demo in King’s Cross in 2023

CAMPAIGNERS calling for a show of restraint in the development of artificial intelligence will protest in King’s Cross on Monday.

The Pause AI group is expecting more than 100 people to demonstration close to the Google DeepMind office in Granary Square.

The company is one of several world leaders which protesters fear are developing artificial intelligence at an alarming rate.

The campaign says that AI has “amazing potential” but also “serious risks” including fake news, societal polarisation, collapse of democracy, dystopian military forces and environmental damage.

Legislation cannot keep pace with the changing landscape that could one day lead to humans no longer in control of key decisions that affect them.

Joseph Miller, director of Pause AI UK, said that companies were “rushing to build AI that replaces humans”, adding: “Join our protest to show that ordinary people will not accept dangerous violations of safety commitments.”

The group said that in 2024 Google and other companies made commitments at the AI Summit in Seoul to allow independent bodies to test models before they were released ­– and that this would be a transparent process.

Pause AI argue this did not happen with a recently released language model.

The Tribune was the only media to report on the group’s protest in 2023 – also in King’s Cross.

Since then support and understanding has grown and large numbers are expected on Monday around 5.30pm.

A Google DeepMind statement said: “We are committed to developing AI safely and securely to benefit society.

“We continue to evolve our model testing and reporting to respond to rapid changes in the technology, and will continue to provide information that supports the responsible use of our AI models.”

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has put AI at the centre of his plans and has supported an AI campus in the ‘Knowledge Quarter’ – the collective name given to tech companies, universities and research labs now clustered around King’s Cross.

This week salaries of around £200,000 were put up for top data scientist jobs with the government as Downing Street said it was ready to bring in “elite teams of engineers” to drive on with advancements.

• BEFORE the last election Labour doctored an image to show Rishi Sunak in bed and asked on an advert whether people wanted to risk waking up the next day with a Tory leader.

Most of us reacted with an ‘eurgh’, but it means the ruling party has no high ground to run to or place to moan now as the internet becomes flooded with photorealistic parody pictures created by services like OpenAi.

Other apps do not allow attempted recreations of real people but, as you can see, social media has become a free-for-all for online jokers until rules are possibly tightened.

Examples include what Liz Truss would look like if she was a lettuce, Sir Keir Starmer as a toolmaker, Good Morning Britain going one better than letting home secretary Yvette Cooper be interviewed by her husband and giving her full presenting duties instead and of course Boris Johnson at a packed out party.

So while, campaigners warn that AI will take all our jobs and worse, so far the public has spent much of the impending apocalypse chortling at their own silly pictures.