WASHINGTON — In September 2023, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and other billionaire tech titans huddled with senators in the Capitol to discuss what Musk called the “civilizational risk” posed by artificial intelligence.Three years later, those tech titans have all deepened their investments in AI, and Congress still has not passed any comprehensive legislation to rein in or create guardrails for the fast-moving technology.Even after countless committee hearings on AI and the formation of various commissions and task forces to study it, there’s not even any consensus in the House or Senate about how to tackle the issue.That failure has been spotlighted in recent days as a trio of AI researchers at top companies dropped a bombshell, saying they had left their jobs over concerns that AI systems could spiral out of control and end humanity.
Jacob Coxon, who resigned from Anthropic, wrote on X: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, said Thursday that it had banned some accounts believed to be tied to foreign governments or militaries for conducting suspicious research that could support the development of biological weapons.Then, over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, published an essay declaring that AI advances are moving too fast and that companies should deliberately “slow the pace” — an idea endorsed by Altman and Musk.Add to GoogleSpeaker Johnson calls for AI ‘guardrails’ but won’t set a pre-election timetable03:02The stark warnings set off fresh alarm bells and a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill, with Democrats and even some Republicans saying Congress is facing a narrow time frame to act on AI.But despite the calls for action, it’s unlikely lawmakers will do anything before Election Day to address the dangers, even as experts say the technology’s capabilities are growing more powerful with each passing month.“The call ...