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The growing popularity of the Boycot ChatGPT campaign

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9 March 2026
Stop using ChatGPT. A short and clear appeal and very much to the point.

After OpenAI, ChatGPT’s mother company, had started cooperating with American government, millions of people responded to the call. “It’s madness”, according to Rutger Bregman, campaign’s supporter and one of the driving forces.

“Open AI is a typical example of a big tech company showing no responsibility.” They have been continuously trying to avoid existent quality demands and safety nets. President Trump did what they demanded and removed safety nets for them.

Van Harmelen agrees, not all AI companies are always as compliant when it comes to safety and regulations, but OpenAI beats them all.  “Such a company cares a lot about its image just as Shell and KLM do. Such a campaign would definitely be very useful.”

No need to think that the lack of regulations can only affect US citizens, says Van Harmelen. “The model is based on American culture. If you talk to the model, the answers will often be based on it. E.g. medication recommendation: Europe is much stricter about antibiotics, however recommendations are based on the US medicines directives. The lack of regulation is maybe even more dangerous for the Europeans than for the Americans.”

According to Bregman, Anthropic, the inventor of Claude model, is significantly better than OpenAI. “They proved they had principles. Its owner is prepared to put his life’s work, his company, at stake for the sake of the principles.”

Click here to read full article in Dutch.

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