Comment by cs702
2 years ago
The ironic thing is that many individuals now clamoring for more regulation have long claimed to be free-market libertarians who think regulation is "always" bad.
Evidently they think regulation is bad only when it puts their profits at risk. As I wrote elsewhere, the tech glitterati asking for regulation of AI remind me of the very important Fortune 500 CEO Mr. Burroughs in the movie "Class:"
Mr. Burroughs: "Government control, Jonathan, is anathema to the free-enterprise system. Any intelligent person knows you cannot interfere with the laws of supply and demand."
Jonathan: "I see your point, sir. That's the reason why I'm not for tariffs."
Mr. Burroughs: "Right. No, wrong! You gotta have tariffs, son. How you gonna compete with the damn foreigners? Gotta have tariffs."
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Absolutely. Those folks arguing for AI regulation aren't arguing for safety – they're asking the government to build a moat around the market segment propping up their VC-funded scams.
Who is "those folks"? The ones I know of have been complaining about how the term "AI safety" has changed meaning from "don't kill everyone" to "don't embarrass the corporation".
The biggest players in AI haven’t been VC-funded for decades. Unless you mean their customers are VC-funded, but even then startups are a much smaller portion of their revenue than Fortune 500.
their motivations may be selfish, but that doesn't mean that regulation of AI is wrong. I'd prefer there be a few heavily-regulated and/or publicly-owned bodies in the public eye that can use and develop these technologies, rather than literally anyone with a powerful enough computer. yeah it's anti-competitive, but competition isn't always a good thing