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Sam Kirshner's Disappearance

38:17 recording · EN · 7 speakers

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Brief overview

Stop AI's founder turned on his own movement, then vanished after OpenAI locked down.

  1. The activists called the police on their own founderGroups that distrust law enforcement warned OpenAI anyway, because they feared Kirshner would go get a gun and shoot up the employees.
  2. AI leaders' own doom talk became a recruiting toolKirshner played clips of Sam Altman saying AI will most likely lead to the end of the world, and recruits said that messaging is what radicalized them.
  3. The subpoena stunt was the movement's peak and its breaking pointTwo weeks after serving Altman on stage, Kirshner split from the group, assaulted a housemate and disappeared with a bike and camping gear.
Executive Summary AI
  • On Friday, November 21, 2025, a San Francisco 911 dispatcher relayed a tip that a potentially armed man was heading to OpenAI's headquarters making threats to kill, and the company locked down its campus while police searched and found no one.0:22
  • The man was Sam Kirshner, founder of the anti-AI group Stop AI, who disappeared that same day and has not been seen since; his own fellow activists were the ones who called the police on him.1:27
  • Kirshner founded Stop AI in the spring of 2024 after Holly Elmore kicked him out of Pause AI for pushing illegal tactics, and the group chained OpenAI's doors in February 2025 and got members arrested to force a trial about AI extinction risk.12:52
  • Their high point came in November 2025 when an investigator walked onstage and served Sam Altman with a subpoena on video, but two weeks later a shouting match over messaging ended with Kirshner running outside barefoot in the rain, punching housemate Yako five or six times in the head, and saying the ship may have sailed on nonviolence.27:51
  • Wall Street Journal reporting says threats against AI companies are rising, with firms adding security budgets, hiring armed guards and telling staff not to wear company logos in public, while Stop AI carries on under new leadership talking more about job losses and data centers than extinction.33:16
Key Quote
“I know that activist groups do not call the cops unless they think something is very wrong.”
— Zusha Ellenson2:04
Key Quote
“So that's why we need to permanently ban it, because an ant can't control a human, right?”
— Sam Kirshner8:31
Key Quote
“You know, I think AI will probably, like, most likely sort of lead to the end of the world.”
— Sam Altman8:53