# Conditional Kickstarter for the "Don't Build It" March

tl;dr: You can pledge to join a big protest to ban AGI research at [ifanyonebuildsit.com/march](https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/march), which only triggers if 100,000 people sign up. You can also sign up to be notified (of that protest, and other potential protests that might take a different shape)

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The [If Anyone Builds It](https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/) website includes a [March page](https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/march), wherein you can pledge to march in Washington DC, demanding an international treaty to stop AGI research *if* 100,000 people in total also pledge.

I designed the March page (although am not otherwise involved with March decisionmaking), and want to pitch people on signing up for the "March Kickstarter."

It's not obvious that small protests do anything, or are worth the effort. But, I think 100,000 people marching in DC would be quite valuable because it showcases "AI x-risk is not a fringe concern. If you speak out about it, you are not being a lonely dissident, you are representing a substantial mass of people."

The current version of the March page is designed around the principle that "conditional kickstarters are cheap." MIRI might later decide to push hard on the March, and maybe then someone will bid for people to come who are on the fence.

For now, I mostly wanted to say: if you're the sort of person who *would* fairly obviously come to a big MIRI-run March in DC to stop superintelligence development if it was sufficiently big, please take 30 seconds to [go to the March page and enter your email](https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/march) and click "submit."

I'd particularly like to get the signup count over 1,000 (currently it's at 711), which feels like the minimum number where I expect people to look at it and think "okay *maybe* that might happen" so there's more chance of it snowballing.

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If you would come to very similar March but object to details of the current framing, please let me know in the comments, and consider registering your email for the "Keep me informed" checkbox without making the commitment. 

Probably expect a design/slogan reroll
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![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/313bf5580c1f6198630fb95ca3c09d34c5a434cd41680671.png)

The current March is very centered around the book. I chose the current slogan/design expecting that, if the March ever became a serious priority, someone would put a lot more thought into what sort of slogans or policy asks are appropriate. The current page is meant to just be a fairly obvious thing to click "yes" on if you read the book and were persuaded. 

(To give some example: one alternate framing I considered and pitched MIRI on was "Build an Off Switch", where the immediate ask is more like "Lay some political and infrastructure groundwork to make it at least *possible* to stop AGI development later." There are a few other frames that have been discussed.)

My personal guess (not speaking for MIRI) is a protest this large necessarily needs to be a bigger tent than the current design implies, but figuring out the exact messaging is a moderately complex task. Right now it just seemed worth spending any effort at all on letting people know on LW who might just obviously want to signup for the current thing.

[Pledge, or Signup to be Notified](https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/march)

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FAQ
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*(From the March page)*

**What's the goal of the Don't Build It march?**
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We're calling for an international treaty to ban the development of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).

**Why?**
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We believe that if any company or group, anywhere on the planet, builds an artificial superintelligence using anything remotely like current techniques, based on anything remotely like the present understanding of AI, then everyone, everywhere on Earth, will die.

We do not mean that as hyperbole. We are not exaggerating for effect. We think that is the most direct extrapolation from the knowledge, evidence, and institutional conduct around artificial intelligence today.

**Why do you think that?**
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AI companies are racing to create artificial superintelligence, while having no idea what they’re doing. This is a bad idea according to theory. And in practice, the warning signs are mounting.

We lay out the argument as clearly and concisely as we can in our book. You can also read our online resources, which go into some details not covered in the book.

**Why does the pledge only take effect if 100,000 people pledge to march?**
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Marches can be very powerful if they’re large, but can send the wrong message if they’re small. So we're only asking that you pledge to march *if* enough other people will join in. If we reach 100,000 pledges, we will schedule the march. If not, we’ll put our efforts towards other strategies instead.

We might reach critical mass soon. Or it might take months or years, as more people learn about the dangers of ASI.

**What do you mean by "international treaty"?**
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It's not useful for only one country to ban advancement of AI capabilities within its own borders. AI development would just keep happening in other countries by people who didn’t understand the dangers, until eventually someone somewhere built machines that were substantially smarter than any human.

This isn't an issue where lawmakers can pass a law inside their own country to protect their own people. If anyone builds machine superintelligence, everyone dies, everywhere. A problem like this requires multiple major powers of the world to unite in a shared agreement to stop this reckless suicide race.

We call on our leaders to declare support for such a treaty, and to begin drafting it now. We call on the whole world to unite to avert the danger.

It would not be the first time that humanity has put a stop to a technological race. Humanity has backed off from creating super-large nuclear warheads, and from creating some of the most dangerous bioweapons. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.

**How much notice will there be for the actual march?**
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We’ll aim to give at least one month notice once we hit 100,000 pledges, unless we crossed the threshold on account of some pending emergency.

**What if I don't want to commit to marching in D.C. yet?**
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You can also just sign up for updates! We'll let you know when our primary march reaches 100,000 pledges.

If and when we host a large march in Washington D.C., we might also wind up hosting many smaller marches in other cities around the world, depending on interest and other factors.

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[Link again to Pledge or Signup to be Notified, for convenience](https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/march)