As a California state senator, Scott Wiener authored laws geared toward curbing the dangers of superior AI. Now, after successful a good congressional race for Nancy Pelosi’s open San Francisco seat, he may play a key function in setting federal AI coverage.
I spoke with Wiener just a few hours after he had been declared the victor. However he was already serious about AI threat: throughout our 20-minute dialog, he used the phrase “recursive self-improvement” half a dozen occasions.
“We have to gradual this down,” he instructed me. “As a result of it’s shifting in a short time, and we may sleepwalk right into a catastrophe.” Nonetheless, he describes himself as solely “cautiously optimistic” about Congress’s means to rein in AI. Right here’s what he plans to do about it.
The backlash about information facilities would possibly actually simply be about electrical energy
—James O’Donnell
As voters went to the polls throughout the US final week, I used to be in Ashburn, Virginia, a part of what’s often known as Information Heart Alley—the world’s largest information middle hub. It’s additionally the place the backlash sweeping the nation arguably first started to take form.
Large Tech has framed the info middle uproar as a tradition conflict over progress. However a number of days in Ashburn satisfied me the actual fault line could also be electrical energy: drawing it from the grid or producing it onsite provokes completely different types of blowback.
The trade can enhance its picture, however it will probably’t escape the results of its monumental urge for food for electrical energy. Discover out why.
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