Key tensions and trade-offs
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence safety, most research groups focus on alignment—ensuring AI does what humans want. But a smaller, more clandestine subset of researchers is asking a different, unsettling question: What happens when an AI actively tries to fail?
The theoretical work of the ASRG is deeply tied to physical and digital subcultural media. A prominent example is a zine dedicated to the Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group.
This internal tension has led to the group’s informal motto: "We are the poison in the well that teaches you to build a filter. But we cannot unpoison the water." algorithmic sabotage research group asrg
Corrupting the datasets used to train AI to prevent the development of harmful predictive tools.
For artists, the ASRG is the only entity offering a technical solution to a legal problem (copyright). For AI engineers, the ASRG is an existential nuisance that increases the cost and complexity of training.
Intentionally feeding "noise" or false data into tracking systems to render their profiles useless. Key tensions and trade-offs In the rapidly evolving
At the heart of ASRG’s ideology is a radical departure from conventional technology critique. The collective rejects the passive act of debunking corporate propaganda or simply calling for ethical reform. In a detailed review of the group’s work, technologist and critic Monroe Lab notes that the tech industry's critique is often "fixated on resistance to false narratives, debunking as praxis," which traps activists in a "feedback loop of call and response". The ASRG exists to break this loop by moving from discourse to direct, disruptive action.
Most machine learning engineers believe the ASRG is winning right now , but will lose tomorrow .
When generative AI companies deploy web crawlers to scrape data without human consent, they burn significant infrastructure compute power. ASRG documents tactics to convert websites into algorithmic "tarpits". A prominent example is a zine dedicated to
: Physical and digital booklets showcase the group's theories. Designed using avant-garde open frameworks like the Alternative Layout System (by Giliane Cachin and INT Studio) and set in functional open typefaces like Authentic Sans , these zines demonstrate how aesthetic choice can mirror political resistance.
: Using artistic interventions to expose the stereotypes and ideologies embedded in machine vision and generative AI.
: A cohort of artists engaged in "cultural red teaming" and creative misuse of AI, which presented at events like DEFCON 31. Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG)
At the center of this counter-offensive is a loose, decentralized collective known as the .