Hi! I’m the candidate, Will Dreher. I’d say I’m both an AI populist and an AI existentialist. Under either paradigm, I think we’d need public governance over this technology ASAP, and it just so happens that—unfortunately for humanity, but fortunately for a political movement seeking to rein in AI—AI presents both tangible, localized harms that people rightly are concerned about (data center growth, job automation, deepfakes) and catastrophic risks that people fear but seem more abstract than, e.g., cost of living to many voters. Rather than choose between the two, I think we should harness both as part of a grassroots political movement that can address both localized harms and catastrophic risks. But if the question is whether I am extremely worried about the catastrophic risks an unregulated AI industry poses, and quite motivated to prevent them, yes, I am. Those risks and economic-shock risks are the reasons I entered the race.
And to be clear—there are no incumbent legislators in Washington state, as far as I can tell, that prioritize (or even really discuss) AI regulation at all. So I would be replacing someone who hasn’t worked on AI regulation in any significant way, and likely wouldn’t prioritize it any time soon. It’s just not his issue.
Hi! I’m the candidate, Will Dreher. I’d say I’m both an AI populist and an AI existentialist. Under either paradigm, I think we’d need public governance over this technology ASAP, and it just so happens that—unfortunately for humanity, but fortunately for a political movement seeking to rein in AI—AI presents both tangible, localized harms that people rightly are concerned about (data center growth, job automation, deepfakes) and catastrophic risks that people fear but seem more abstract than, e.g., cost of living to many voters. Rather than choose between the two, I think we should harness both as part of a grassroots political movement that can address both localized harms and catastrophic risks. But if the question is whether I am extremely worried about the catastrophic risks an unregulated AI industry poses, and quite motivated to prevent them, yes, I am. Those risks and economic-shock risks are the reasons I entered the race.
And to be clear—there are no incumbent legislators in Washington state, as far as I can tell, that prioritize (or even really discuss) AI regulation at all. So I would be replacing someone who hasn’t worked on AI regulation in any significant way, and likely wouldn’t prioritize it any time soon. It’s just not his issue.