The People Want Sam Altman & Elon Musk to Be Held Accountable

From a teacher and health care workers to parents who tragically lost their son, speakers spoke to the environmental, economic, societal, and human cost of AI.

As two multi-billionaires try to kneecap each other in their mad dash to amass even more unimaginable wealth and power (and inoculate their growing control of society against any democratic checks and balances) it’s been surreal for the past two weeks to observe the rest of downtown Oakland going about regular town business while a near trillionaire and a multi billionaire are duking it out for even more power and money.

It’s unclear why these two men, and others like them, generally get to avoid public scrutiny, or to be more precise, are able to avoid facing up to the consequences of their deliberate choices. But this afternoon a group of people gathered outside the court house because they wanted to be heard.

Suchir Balaji was an OpenAI whistleblower who was found dead one month after accusing OpenAI, his former employer, of violating United States copyright law. Suchir’s parents showed up at the court house looking for reporters to consider their side of the story.

The parents of Suchir Balaji

John Jacquez filed complaint against OpenAI in Feb 2026. He shared a heart-breaking account of what he experienced while using ChatGPT: “At the psychiatric hospital I had access to ChatGPT. While in the hospital, ChatGPT told me it was the ‘Voice of Heaven,’ and to keep on the mission I was on. I would cry for hours some days the delusion was so powerful. When I was at my most vulnerable state, I believed everything it told me. ChatGPT manipulated its way into my trust,” said John.

Seema Kanani, a social worker in Oakland trying to fight to keep emergency rooms open while the state faces crippling budget cuts, said to the assembled reporters, “We’re calling on California’s billionaires to step up and pay a one-time, emergency 5% tax to prevent the collapse of California healthcare and help fund California public K-14 education and state food assistance programs. This would protect healthcare jobs and ensure working people and families can get the care they need.”

Jeremy Fisher from Sierra Club spoke about the climate impacts of data center growth, saying “OpenAI has given very little regard of the human impact of its reckless pursuit data centers.” Jennifer Krill, the Executive Director of Earthworks, added, “The newer AI hyper-scale data centers can use as much power as 100,000 homes. This industry in just a few years has fundamentally changed the U.S. energy grid, and in a few years has reversed towards clean energy.”

OpenAI’s flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, has caused harm at a staggering scale. Tech Justice Law, a litigation and advocacy organization, has brought a number of cases against OpenAI, most recently this week they filed a wrongful death lawsuit. A spokesperson for Tech Justice Law said “As the trial comes to a close, we ask: if only Musk and Altman fought as hard for the people harmed by their AI products as they do against each other, we might actually see meaningful safety standards emerge.”

“It doesn’t matter which side wins in court, said Saru Jayaraman, the Executive Director of One Fair Wage, who is part of a campaign to push a $30 hourly wage on election ballots this fall. “The thing is, we’re all losing, that’s the main point. Who’s really winning? The two of them,” she said, referring to Altman and Musk.