Some key events described in the Atlantic article:
Kirchner, who’d moved to San Francisco from Seattle and co-founded Stop AI there last year, publicly expressed his own commitment to nonviolence many times, and friends and allies say they believed him. Yet they also say he could be hotheaded and dogmatic, that he seemed to be suffering under the strain of his belief that the creation of smarter-than-human AI was imminent and that it would almost certainly lead to the end of all human life. He often talked about the possibility that AI could kill his sister, and he seemed to be motivated by this fear.
“I did perceive an intensity,” Sorgen said. She sometimes talked with Kirchner about toning it down and taking a breath, for the good of Stop AI, which would need mass support. But she was empathetic, having had her own experience with protesting against nuclear proliferation as a young woman and sinking into a deep depression when she was met with indifference. “It's very stressful to contemplate the end of our species—to realize that that is quite likely. That can be difficult emotionally.”
Whatever the exact reason or the precise triggering event, Kirchner appears to [...]
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First published:
December 5th, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kxgLTip3aMotkNLkp/journalist-s-inquiry-into-a-core-organiser-breaking-his
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