Boycott of OpenAI’s funding of President Trump and I.C.E.
As generative artificial intelligence (AI) evolves quickly in the hands of a few companies, it has begun creeping into government usage. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) resume screening tool is powered by GPT-4, and OpenAI’s owner Greg Brockman donated “$25 million to MAGA Inc. in 2025,” according to the QuitGPT website. QuitGPT is a grassroots movement, composed of “democracy activists that are gravely concerned about AIcompanies contributing to the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S.” The movement is boycotting Open AI’s ChatGPT because of concerns about who the owner is funding. Canceling subscriptions to the service is the key part of their movement to stop the owners of OpenAI from generating more wealth, so that companies can no longer fund MAGA and help I.C.E. They believe that this global unsubscribing will be effective because “ChatGPT has been losing market share” with the creator “losing 3x more than they earn,” according to QuitGPT’s website. They aim to, “push OpenAI over the edge,” and make an example of ChatGPT so that, “CEOs think twice before they get in bed with Trump.”
Another issue of urgency for QuitGPT is the irresponsible usage of AI and potential co-dependency with it. QuitGPT claims “Psychiatrists are documenting “AI psychosis” with people losing touch from reality after extensive usage. According to QuitGPT, there is an estimated, “half a million weekly ChatGPT users show signs of mania or psychosis,” with “one in five Americans having used AI for romantic companionship,” and others using as a therapist or friend.
An additional concern that is gaining attention, not just with ChatGPT but all generative AI, is the environmental impact. Generative AI requires vast amounts of resources, much more than other AI such as a Google search. According to the Government of Canada, electricity used to train Generative AI models, “would be enough to power hundreds of Canadian homes for a year.” With each individual generative prompt using up to “10 times the electricity of a simple Google search.”
It is not just the energy usage that is cause for concern, as the facilities utilized to store the data banks used to produce answers requires an abundance of water to cool the data banks. The Canadian Government estimates a “small 1-megawatt data centre can use nearly 26 million litres of water per year.” Each individual response also consumes an abundance of water, with previous model GPT-3 consuming approximately, “500 ml of water per 10-50 responses.” There is also a lack of resources to create these technologies, as they are made of rare metals. One of these being cobalt, whose “supply could fall short by 2030,” according to the Canadian Government. To spread these concerns, much of Quit GPT’s activism has been done through social media campaigns. Over 700,000 people have shared their movement on social media, with celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo joining the movement. Beyond social media that have created a Discord and Substack for people to join, saying they are, “building an army to roll back Trump’s authoritarianism and the tech industry’s enablement of Trump.”