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Sanders introduces bill to ban artificial superintelligence and pause AI
- -_- 28d agoBill summary: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Ban-Artificial-Superintelligence-Act-Release-Summary.pdf https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Ban-Artifi... https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2095542398084415952 https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2095542398084415952 “We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence — an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario. That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that.”
- GPerson 28d ago[flagged]
- Legend2440 28d ago>Anybody who disagrees with the ban on superintelligence in principle, maybe not in practice, is a traitor to humanity Oh, so anybody who disagrees with me is evil? This is the kind of attitude that ruined US politics.
- GPerson 28d agoYou actually support an intelligence beyond human control. Yes, you are evil. Anyone who supports anything that will obviously end humanity is evil. Notice I did not comment on pausing AI and I said ‘in principle’.
- Legend2440 28d agoIt's not going to end humanity. We're going to use it to do incredible things that would otherwise be forever beyond our ability - a post-work economy, science fiction technologies, advanced mathematics, etc.
- GPerson 28d agoWe can do that without superintelligence. There’s no reason to have an independently acting AI which is out of control.
- joquarky 28d ago> We can do that without superintelligence Citation needed. History has shown that we can't do this by ourselves because the psychopaths always rise to the top.
- deleted 28d ago[deleted]
- GPerson 28d ago(1) It has not. (2) The LLM based hegemon will have learned how to lead from the training data.
- esafak 28d agoHow do you know that? If an advanced alien species visited us do you suppose our interaction would be limited to their sharing their knowledge with us?
- GPerson 28d agoThe guy you’re replying to thinks this whole thread is about just any AI so it’s hopeless.
- Gooblebrai 28d agoFrom > intelligence beyond human control. (1) to > that will obviously end humanity (2) There's quite an assumption on the feasibility of (1) and even a bigger jump that from (1) follows (2) Some people can have less apocalyptic / more pragmatic views of the potential of AI.
- GPerson 28d agoYour AI utopia requires an independently acting autonomous agent? What is the purpose of that? And you are not seriously engaging with anything I’ve written I’ll add. The definition Bernie Sanders has for superintelligence involves it having the capability to “plan and execute the disempowerment of humanity”. That is going to lead to the end of humanity but feel free to quibble in support of what Sanders had set up as obviously severely undesirable.
- Legend2440 28d ago>And you are not seriously engaging with anything I’ve written Why should I? You've already declared me a traitor to humanity. You can't expect people to take your opinions seriously if you don't take theirs seriously.
- GPerson 28d agoMy opinion is that anybody who wants humanity to end is a traitor to humanity. Also I guess GP is your sock puppet else I wasn’t even talking to you. I don’t take your opinions seriously, yes.
- therealpygon 28d ago> I don’t take your opinions seriously In fairness, I personally believe anyone who thinks that uncontrolled super-intelligence will be the automatic outcome is an absolute idiot likely to have a below-average IQ, but that probably leaves me and most people on equal footing with you in the “no one actually cares what your opinion is” race. Apparently, some people lack the technical understanding that an AI, by itself, literally can’t do anything at all and that it is the tools and harnessing provided to an AI that allows it to perform any type of action. Given this is such basic and fundamental knowledge to anyone who even attempts to understand how they work, I can only assume they are incapable of understanding. I would love to hear the intelligent basis for your ideas on how disagreeing with stupidity makes them a traitor.
- Varelion 28d agoYou are short-sighted to think that. What ruined US politics is the cycle of greed and money.
- Legend2440 28d agoGreed and money aren't helping. There is no single cause for anything. But the fact that both liberals and conservatives think of the other as 'evil' is a large problem.
- bigyabai 28d agoSomething gives me the feeling that Sanders and Chomsky were both put on this earth to manufacture liberal hysteria towards AI. It's a good thing that we discredited Chomsky before we knew about his Epstein connections, and I'm inclined to ignore Sanders' armchair fearmongering in the same vein too. It's artificial and bizarre, and a fear that I cannot empathize with given what we know and see from LLMs.
- ronsor 28d ago"Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech" We've been down this road before with cryptography. No, it's not going to work.
- slibhb 28d agoIn my view, AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society where massive redistribution has no/few downsides. If all labor is done by AIs then the price of everything will go to near zero and everyone can have a government mandated middle class lifestyle. Therefore I find it ironic that leftists oppose AI progress.
- bigyabai 28d agoIs there any evidence that "all labor" could be done by AI? It doesn't seem to me like we have any guarantee that AI will contribute to public wellbeing. Right now, the public is socializing the losses while the industry privatizes the technology and cozies up to the federal government. LLMs will be usable for mass surveillance and war long before it ever leads us to a post-scarcity society.
- qda34h 28d agoBrutal downvoting again by Big-AI PR agencies, maybe automated by now. If anyone can name a rational reason why the top comment is the top comment but this one deserves -4, please say so.
- ronsor 28d agoHN has plenty of comments critical of AI training and AI in general. I don't think "Big AI" has downvote bot armies here, or if there are, they really need improvement because they clearly haven't been working lately.
- smokedetector1 28d agoThis is either a troll or a shockingly naive understanding of how scarce resources are allocated
- slibhb 28d ago"Technology will free mankind from labor and usher in an era where everyone is simply allocated whatever they requre" was a staple of leftism up until the USSR collapsed. The difference is that today, unlike in the 20th century, there's a feasible path to post-scarcity. It's not "around the corner" but there's a path if you squint. Myabe it won't pan out, but it's worth a shot. The irony is that leftists want to ban AI to preserve scarcity thereby protecting people's jobs.
- 52ahf 28d agoThat is very rational. Finally some politicians realize that there can be AI treaties with Russia and China similar to the INF treaty (banned medium range nuclear missiles). The INF treaty worked from 1987 until Trump tore it up in 2019.
- lukifer 28d agoIntelligence is a weapon? points gun from space Always has been.
- deleted 28d ago[deleted]
- animanoir 28d ago[dead]
- hgoel 28d agoIf we're banning superintelligence, we might as well ban genies from granting wishes and aliens from outside the solar system from establishing residence on Earth.
- Legend2440 28d agoIf people like him their way, we'd still be farming with shovels and weaving our clothes by hand. Banning automation is shortsighted and stupid; you refuse to let people increase the size of the pie because you're worried it'll make your fraction smaller. But a smaller fraction of a bigger pie is still a bigger piece.
- reasonableklout 28d agoThat's not what the bill is about. Did you read the article? It's explicitly about catastrophic risks: > “Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders said. “The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control... That’s why I am introducing legislation to immediately pause the development of increasingly powerful AI and ban the creation of systems that humanity cannot fully control"
- GPerson 28d agoIt’s ironic you pearl clutch over the state of US politics but can’t seriously engage with the actual politics.
- Timon3 28d agoIt's entirely possible for the pie to grow and for your piece to still end up smaller than it was before. This should be obvious.
- hackingonempty 28d agoIn the USA, thousands of people are killed every year by car drivers. This is tolerated without a peep, relatively speaking, even though 20 times as many pedestrians are killed by drivers as are killed by mass shootings that dominate the news and voter issues. So I predict the number of people we will tolerate being killed every year to have good AI will be more than zero, much more.
- Nemisis7654 28d agoI think this is a false comparison. We do indeed tolerate a number. But we also regulate heavily to try and minimize that to a point where we do not negatively impact society (i.e. speed limit of 65mph on Highways, not 10 mph). I think right now, given this is all very new, we can and should be looking at regulation as we start to identify what shoudl be the upper limit.
- josh_p 28d agoWe decided after the Sandy Hook massacre that it was okay for a few kids to die in shootings every year so that people could keep their gun rights. Thank the gun lobby. You can thank the Oil and Car lobby groups for Congress' silence on car issues. As long as that sweet sweet blood money keeps flowing into the pockets of politicians, nothing will get better.
- redsocksfan45 28d ago[dead]
- HDThoreaun 28d ago[dead]
- tim333 27d agoI suspect AI will save more people than it kills so we may not have to do much tolerating.
- dang 28d agoProposed bills rarely amount to anything in the end, so it's generally better to wait for a more substantial story. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20bills%20propos&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- ch4s3 28d agoEspecially with Sanders who has sponsored or co-authored 2 laws[1][2] that have passed and were signed into law, and a few pieces of minor legislation renaming post offices. [1] Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2013 [2] Cancer Registries Amendment Act (1992)
- instagib 28d agounfavorable or symbolic bills introduced for fundraising, campaign attack ads, etc. Happens when one party holds most power in govt. May not even reach the floor for a debate, let alone vote.
- josh_p 28d agoSure, whatever.. If Sanders were actually serious about trying to make the world a better place, he'd be more vocal about impeaching Trump and support Congress' efforts to do so. I get it, AI's an easy target.
- ethbr1 28d agoNever has "old man yells at cloud" been so literally appropriate. https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/old-man-yells-at-cloud https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/old-man-yells-at-cl... (Don't get me wrong, I agree with the guy on many, many points. But attempting to ban development of something with so much money riding on it is laughably naive)
- RickJWagner 28d agoHow is this supposed to stop development outside of the US? If AI turns evil, it will probably not discriminate on which countries to destroy. So Sanders kneecapping the USA won’t slow China, which could result in global destruction anyway. Without global agreement ( and intrusive monitoring ), it doesn’t seem useful.
- ksudb 28d ago[dead]