OpenAI’s new Washington DC lobbying office drew a sit-in protest Monday from more than 30 students with the Sunrise Movement and QuitGPT, who hung a banner reading “Stop Stealing Our Future” and held signs accusing the company of buying their senators. Police cleared the building after two hours, and Sunrise says 13 people were arrested. The office, nicknamed The Workshop, sits a short walk from the White House. Organizers timed the action to Congress’s August recess and are running similar ones in more than 20 states, aimed at pro-AI super PAC money headed into the midterms. Estimates of that spending run from $140M already committed to a projected $200M for Leading the Future, the PAC backed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman.
