September 23, 2026 — New York, N.Y. — Nineteen activists from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), Extinction Rebellion, Climate Defiance, POP (Protect Our Planet) and other groups were arrested Wednesday after blocking the street next to One World Trade Center, which was hosting the Newsweek Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Summit. They were protesting keynote speaker and Mount Sinai CEO Brendan Carr over Mount Sinai’s contract with AI company Palantir and demanding the hospital end that relationship.
After initially blocking the One World Trade Center entrance to the conference, the group moved to block nearby West St., where the 19 were arrested. The protesters are calling on Mount Sinai to break its contract with Palantir; New York City’s public healthcare system, NYC Health + Hospitals, ended its contract with the company earlier this year. “New Yorkers deserve better than AI and algorithms making life and death decisions for them,” said ACT UP member Ryan Casey.
Palantir at Mount Sinai
The groups say Palantir specializes in warfare, policing, surveillance and immigration enforcement and has implemented AI at Mount Sinai since 2022. They say that implementation includes algorithm-based decision-making about care and “Hospital At Home” models that, the activists contend, push people out of hospital beds faster.
The activists say Palantir is complicit in multiple human rights violations both domestically and internationally: that the company aids in mass deportations and detentions by ICE and helps train the NYPD to profile and track New Yorkers; that in Gaza and the West Bank Palantir has helped in the surveilling and killing of tens of thousands of civilians; and that in Iran the company has guided U.S. military bombings of civilians and infrastructure.
“Climate activists are here today because we are not just trying to ‘save the planet.’ We want to save its people,” said Extinction Rebellion member Jenna Cardinale. “Palantir’s AI-weapons have been utilized in the Gaza genocide and ecocide abroad. At home, Palantir has been caught using healthcare data in its contract with ICE, weaponizing New Yorkers’ private information against them. Mt. Sinai’s contract with Palantir is profoundly anti-human.”
Arrests and next steps
The activists say they will continue protests until Mount Sinai cuts ties with Palantir. High-resolution publicity photos and videos are available at https://bit.ly/4hnxCEC.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ACT UP Contact: Brandon Cuicchi
Phone: 646 284 2948
Email: media@ACTUPNY.com
XR Contact: Henry Pratt
Phone: 973 975 3605
Email: XRNYC.media@gmail.com
