MORNING GLORY: Spare us the AI apocalypse rhetoric. Let Congress decide what comes next
Every morning brings a new warning about "artificial intelligence" (AI) along the lines of, "We are all going to die."By afternoon, or by the next day at the latest, comes the counter-warning: "Stand down.Nothing to see here."For those of us who need a YouTube video to start the dishwasher or to find the emergency lights on a rental car, the correct posture is difficult to guess.
"Guess" is the operative word here, because if 0.01% of America understands the debate, I would be surprised.AI EXTINCTION WARNINGS DOMINATE HEADLINES AFTER EX-ANTHROPIC EMPLOYEE'S VIRAL POSTAlmost everyone who cared to read or watch the Cold War unfold knew the score of that arms race when it came to nuclear weapons.Similarly, most conventional conflicts—whether Ukraine’s extraordinary defense against the Russian invasion, Israel’s multi-front war following Hamas’ 10/7 attack in 2023, or America’s ongoing battle with Iran to deny it both nuclear weapons and control over the Strait of Hormuz—are of the sort that most free people who want to understand those conflicts can understand (with a little time and care in choosing their sources).Not so with "AI" and its potential and dangers.RESEARCHER WHO DEPARTED AI ROLE OVER FEARS OF RACING INTO EXTINCTION SAYS PEOPLE ARE 'BEGGING' FOR REGULATIONOn Saturday, Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s chief executive, said in an essay that AI was advancing too quickly for researchers to continue building it safely.Within a day, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive; Elon Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive; and Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind’s CEO, all said they agreed on the need for a slower pace.ANTHROPIC CEO LIKENS AI FIGHT WITH CHINA TO COLD WAR, SEEKS 'DISARMAMENT NEGOTIATIONS'By Monday morning, billionaire tech investor David Sacks’ response to Amodei was everywhere on X, formerly known as Twitter, and the post had some bite.In addition to rejecting "AI doomerism," Sacks unsubtly proposed that Amodei could be motivated by self-interest (w...