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asserted
you → send → this
We spent yesterday at the big AI summit in Washington.
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We → spend → Washington
We listened to Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders find common ground, and then asked key players what they thought.
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they → listen → what
We also parsed the very deep differences between Bannon and Sanders on what comes next.
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what → parse → Bannon
Plus, just why did Jim Banks endorse JD Vance for president this week?
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Banks → endorse → president
He believes in the Green New Deal and that conservatives are using culture war issues, such as trans athletes in women’s sports, to divide the working class and distract from the real struggle.
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conservatives → believe → struggle
No wonder the words almost got caught in his throat as he discussed how the Left needed to wake up and work with Steve Bannon, the economic nationalist rabble rouser, to confront the existential peril posed by artificial intelligence… until they came out in a great torrent of ideas.
“Progressives need to understand that Steve Bannon is to a great degree in alignment with our position about protecting us from the peril, and need to realize and then be realistic about the landscape of American politics,” Minsky told Secrets.
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Minsky → catch → Secrets
“The progressive left has a long history of shunning any coordination with people on the far Right.
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left → have → Right
That would be unwise,” he added.
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he → add → ?
“He obviously is a highly accomplished strategic thinker, and we should accept that we need to move in parallel with him and other people from his political formations.”
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we → accomplish → formations
He apologized for the wordy response.
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He → apologize → response
“I can make it more concise,” he said.
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he → make → ?
Somewhere in the crowd was Amy Kremer, who organized the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that was followed by the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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that → organize → Capitol
And from the stage, Ashley Judd, the actor, peppered her talk with phrases like “male entitlement” and the dangers of “sex hierarchy.”
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Judd → pepper → hierarchy
Amid the woke and anti-woke audience, Bannon and Sanders emerged as the odd couple of AI regulation.
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Bannon → emerge → regulation
They agreed that it was simply too important and too dangerous to be left to a tech billionaire class, people “whose chief goal is to achieve even more wealth and more power than they already have, no matter what the impact their work has on ordinary people,” according to Sanders.
uncertain
work → agree → Sanders
And they both delivered a message that the technology has to be slowed down so that guardrails can catch up.
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guardrails → deliver → message
If Minsky represented the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party in the audience, his right-wing counterpart was Caroline Wren.
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counterpart → represent → audience
She is an America First strategist and fundraiser who is deeply embedded in Trumpworld.
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who → embed → Trumpworld
Wren praised the organizers for putting the two speakers together and described Sanders’ speech as “excellent.”
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Wren → praise → speech
Both speakers had their finger on the pulse of the American public, who were nervous about where AI was headed.
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AI → have → public
“It’s going to take people across both political lines and people within the grassroots activist movement and within legislation kind of step up, and so that was very fascinating to see them go back to back,” she said.
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she → go → back
Organizers knew it was a high-risk, high-reward strategy.
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it → know → ?
“Trying not to think about it,” said one when asked what could go wrong ahead of the speeches.
uncertain
what → try → speeches
In the event, the two speakers delivered.
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speakers → deliver → event
Sanders got the bigger reception, reflecting a liberal majority in the room.
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Sanders → get → room
And there were sharp intakes of breath when Bannon proposed kicking Chinese students out of American labs to protect domestic technologies.
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Bannon → be → technologies
Yet it didn’t stop one progressive in the audience from wondering whether they might now risk appearing on Bannon’s War Room to discuss AI.
uncertain
they → stop → AI
“You know, I view him as politically toxic and the root cause of a lot that is wrong in this country,” they mused, “but if we could just stick to AI in the conversation…”
uncertain
we → know → conversation
The two men offered similar but different perspectives on AI during their speeches.
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men → offer → speeches
Their populist positions both emphasized that the risks posed by the new technology were simply too important to leave to unaccountable tech billionaires to manage, and that there was an urgent need to slow things down.
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risks → emphasize → things
Yet they offered deeply different ideas on how to get from their shared starting points to their shared end points.
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they → offer → points
Sanders, not surprisingly, as a legislator, believes legislation is key.
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legislation → believe → legislator
Bannon thinks things cannot wait for the months or years that would take.
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that → think → months
Sanders: “Congress and governments around the world must act now before it is too late.
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it → act → world
That is why next week I will be introducing legislation with Congressman Greg Casar to permanently ban development of artificial superintelligence.”
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I → introduce → superintelligence
They’re not going to be answered in legislation on Capitol Hill.
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They → go → Hill
This has to be an executive action.”
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This → have → ?
On China
Sanders wants a treaty — he compared it with Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signing a nuclear deal in the ’80s — while Bannon made the nationalist argument that Beijing simply cannot be trusted.
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Beijing → want → argument
Sanders: “It will be humanity’s problem, and that is why I hope very much that at their AI summit next week, President Trump will negotiate a comprehensive treaty with President Xi to establish a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on superintelligence.
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Trump → hope → superintelligence
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
