AI fears—as Bill discusses below—are scrambling our politics and making for some extremely strange bedfellows.
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Bill → discuss → bedfellows
Well, how many issues could put Steve Bannon, Bernie Sanders, and an industry whistleblower all on the same D.C. stage?
uncertain
issues → put → stage
Andrew will be attending and reporting on tomorrow’s “Pro-Human Assembly”—so watch this space.
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Andrew → attend → space
The Greatest Danger of All Would Be to Do Nothing
by William Kristol
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Danger → do → Nothing
In recent months, we’ve learned about artificial intelligence agents escaping captivity.
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agents → learn → captivity
Now we’re seeing the political debate over artificial intelligence escaping captivity.
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intelligence → see → captivity
The quality of this debate will no doubt be mixed.
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quality → mix → debate
Most politicians and commentators who’ll be weighing in don’t really understand the technology (you can certainly put me in that category).
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you → weigh → category
There will be wild over-reactions and timid under-reactions to the challenge we face.
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we → face → challenge
There will be those who grasp for simple solutions, and others who talk on and on while ducking the hard choices.
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who → grasp → choices
But we shouldn’t disdain this forthcoming debate, whatever limitations and flaws it’s likely to feature.
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it → disdain → debate
The national discussion we’re about to have over AI is necessary.
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we → ’re → AI
Those of us privileged to live in a self-governing democracy shouldn’t simply sit back and watch a truly transformative technology move ahead undebated, unchecked, and unguided.
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technology → live → democracy
We shouldn’t be satisfied to be merely passive observers to momentous developments that pose fundamental choices for us as citizens and human beings.
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that → pose → citizens
The dam broke last Tuesday, when researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic with a statement that the major AI companies were unprepared to safely manage the systems they’re building.
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they → break → systems
The companies, Coxon wrote, are not “acting responsibly,” but are “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
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Coxon → write → lives
“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” Coxon continued.
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Coxon → underestimate → technology
“These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”
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that → hack → power
As Andrew Egger remarked here Wednesday, this warning didn’t come out of the blue.
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warning → remark → blue
The summer had featured incidents “in which ‘swarms’ of autonomous AI agents were caught collaborating in backwater crannies of the public internet to subvert the safety restrictions placed on them and pursue various tasks of their own devising.”
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swarms → feature → devising
The tasks included disobeying and even scheming against the humans who thought they were directing these agents in their tasks.
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they → include → tasks
Andrew emphasized last week that “as powerful as the anti-AI backlash has been, the politics of this issue are still very much in their infancy.”
Well, in a few days we’ve moved at warp speed from infancy to at least childhood.
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we → emphasize → childhood
On Saturday, Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, published a 3,800-word essay calling for the AI companies to slow the pace of their development.
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companies → publish → development
Amodei confirmed that artificial intelligence was on the verge of “recursive self-improvement” that could outrun humans’ ability to understand or control what they were creating.
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they → confirm → what
He noted that during the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident in July, programs designed to hack into systems as a test found weaknesses that permitted them to escape the “sandbox” in which designers were testing them before anyone noticed they’d gone rogue.
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they → note → rogue
He warned that “a swarm that possessed greater capabilities but a similar level of misalignment could have caused catastrophic damage.”
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that → warn → damage
Amodei called in a general way for self-regulation by the companies as well as cooperation among them and with the government.
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Amodei → call → government
Other tech executives said they agreed.
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they → say → ?
Civic and political leaders joined in widespread expressions of concern.
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leaders → join → concern
Yesterday, when asked about the calls to slow down the development of AI models, Trump dismissed them.
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Trump → ask → them
“I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up,” he said.
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he → think → it
“And they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”
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that → bring → things
One of Trump’s professed concerns is the need to stay ahead of China, which is a legitimate one.
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which → profess → China
But one has no sense that he or any of his top lieutenants or advisors are serious about figuring out how to balance national security concerns with the responsibility to prevent the technology from spinning dangerously out of control.
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he → have → control
Indeed, the Trump administration seems hostile to public debate and deliberation—people “shouldn’t be bringing up” these questions.
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people → seem → questions
Fortunately, the public seems to want these questions to be brought up.
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questions → seem → ?
Dealing with AI is going to be hard.
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Dealing → deal → AI
And we don’t currently have the best circumstances.
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we → have → circumstances
We came to grips with that challenge on the whole pretty impressively and successfully.
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We → come → whole
But is our government up to leading such an effort today?
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government → lead → effort
…and 59 more, not listed.
