I have a very simple opinion about why pushes for AI regulation fail. Ready?
Because nobody knows what they are asking for, or what they are asking for is absurd.
Here are the absurdities:
“Stop all AI research forever”
“Stop all AI research until it’s safe to do, and I say when it’s safe (i will never say it’s safe)”
“Stop all AI research except mine, where I sit around and think about it”
“Pause all AI research until we have a functional genetic engineering project so our smarter descendants can do AI research”
Once we get past absurd asks we get into easily coopted asks, like “restrict compute” which turns into “declare an arms race with the largest industrial power on the planet” and “monitor training runs” which turns into “tell every potential competitor you are going to have the government crush them”.
What will convince me there is a sane block pushing for AI-related regulations is when they propose a regulation that is sane. I cannot emphasize enough how much these things have failed at the drafting stage. The part everyone is allegedly good at, that part, where you write down a good idea that it might be a good idea to do? That’s the part where this has failed.
I have a very simple opinion about why pushes for AI regulation fail. Ready?
Because nobody knows what they are asking for, or what they are asking for is absurd.
Here are the absurdities:
“Stop all AI research forever”
“Stop all AI research until it’s safe to do, and I say when it’s safe (i will never say it’s safe)”
“Stop all AI research except mine, where I sit around and think about it”
“Pause all AI research until we have a functional genetic engineering project so our smarter descendants can do AI research”
Once we get past absurd asks we get into easily coopted asks, like “restrict compute” which turns into “declare an arms race with the largest industrial power on the planet” and “monitor training runs” which turns into “tell every potential competitor you are going to have the government crush them”.
What will convince me there is a sane block pushing for AI-related regulations is when they propose a regulation that is sane. I cannot emphasize enough how much these things have failed at the drafting stage. The part everyone is allegedly good at, that part, where you write down a good idea that it might be a good idea to do? That’s the part where this has failed.