On Saturday, hundreds of protesters as part of various AI safety groups will march in 12 cities across U.S, Canada and Europe, demanding an immediate international AI treaty to halt the frontier AI race, ahead of the highly anticipated Trump-Xi meet in China.
According to AI safety activist and filmmaker Michael Trazzi, the simultaneous protests will be held in 12 cities-Washington D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago and Seattle in U.S, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, Paris and Marseille in France and Berlin in Germany.
This Saturday 12 cities will march demanding an AI treaty that would stop the development of more advanced AI
Speaking: Ambassador Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) and Nate Soares (@So8res) in DC, and Professor Lawrence Lessig (@lessig) in Boston. https://t.co/JTox6OrPGj
— Michaël Trazzi (@MichaelTrazzi) November 12, 2026
The protesters have demanded for an international AI treaty that “bans development of powerful AI systems” by frontier labs ahead of the scheduled visit of US President to Beijing, China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit where he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“The time of voluntary commitments is over. On Nov 18, Trump meets Xi Jinping. We’re asking them to start negotiating an international AI Treaty that bans the development of more powerful AI systems until we can proceed safely,” read a joint statement by AI Treaty March.
Former United Nations (UN) ambassador and National Security Adviser Susan Rice will be leading the protesters in Washington D.C. as she took to X on Friday to announce, “Come join me and many others as we rally in DC on Saturday to STOP the AI RACE!.”
Come join me and many others as we rally in DC on Saturday to STOP the AI RACE!
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) November 12, 2026
Calls for a pause on frontier AI development have increased after reported incidents of AI agents of frontier AI companies breaching third party organizations including government databases.
Also Read: “Happy Rogue AI Day”: Inside the Absurdist Protest at OpenAI Office
Leading AI safety researchers, policymakers and even AI companies’ CEOs like Sam Altman and Dario Amodei have called for a voluntary pause on frontier AI development, or “pacing the AI”, deeming the current AI trajectory too risky for mankind.
China, on the other hand, has largely remained silent and opaque on the issue of AI safety even as it faces criticism for using distillation techniques to train its indigenous models on LLMs developed by US AI companies.
Also Read: China’s AI Safety Focus Shifts From ‘What AI Says’ to ‘What AI Does’: Report
In a Substack post titled ‘How Trump and Xi Could Avert an AI Catastrophe’, former UN Ambassador Susan Rice writes, “Despite the long odds, there is an opportunity for monumental action when President Trump hosts President Xi of China this week for a summit that is already slated to discuss AI. Rather than merely establish another bilateral dialogue or new crisis notification mechanism, Presidents Trump and Xi could change the course of history and potentially save humanity.”
The protesters are part of Stop the AI Race, Coalition AI Treaty, Irreplaceable, Humans in Control, Food and Water Watch, Evitable, National Union of Healthcare Workers, D.C. AI Safety Collective, AI Action Now, People for a Pause, and Pause AI.
Also Read: So, How Do We Pause the AI Race? A New Paper Hints Towards Controlling Chips That Power It
