The Future of Life Institute hosted a regulatory summit Tuesday where Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon found common ground on AI regulation. The odds of this happening were slightly lower than a retail trader correctly timing both the entry and exit on a meme stock. Yet here we are.
Congress and Trump remain idle on the issue. Idle being the technical term for "we have no f*cking clue what any of this means but we're terrified to admit it." Lawmakers who still ask their grandchildren to print out emails are now tasked with regulating technology that can write code, generate images, and replace entire departments. This will go smoothly.
The event brought together AI skeptics and regulation advocates to urge action on reining in the technology. Reining in. As if AI is a horse that just needs a firmer hand on the bridle. The technology is expanding faster than a Robinhood user's risk tolerance after one winning trade, and the proposed solution is a strongly worded letter followed by eighteen months of subcommittee hearings.
Sanders wants to protect workers. Bannon wants to protect America. Both showed up to the same conference room in Washington to say the exact same thing about the exact same problem. When political opposites agree, it either means the threat is existential or everyone involved is completely wrong. History suggests the latter happens more often.
The real story is what Congress does next, which is nothing. They'll schedule another hearing. Someone will ask if AI can be shut off like a light switch. A tech CEO will explain for the fourteenth time that no, it cannot. Then everyone goes to lunch.
Your trading algorithm trained on YouTube tutorials and gut feeling is definitely going to outperform whatever fresh hell emerges from this regulatory vacuum.
Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash
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