America needs responsible leadership on AI development. It has Trump, instead. | Editorial
Government needs to step in and apply guardrails to artificial intelligence, but Congress has failed to take action while the president is all-in on an unregulated AI future.
Another cry for help came from the billionaires building the artificial intelligence machinery that threatens to upend — if not end — the world: Save us from ourselves before it is too late!
Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, posted a 3,800-word essay over the weekend that called for a global slowdown in the development of AI because the risk to humanity outpaced the benefits.
Other leading Big Tech masters of the universe offered half-hearted endorsements for a slowdown, including Space X’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis.
Amodei’s plea came just days after an Anthropic researcher quit over safety concerns and issued a grave warning that the technology has more than a 10% chance of killing all humans.
“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” Jacob Coxon wrote in a lengthy social media post. “These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources... The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Coxon’s warning echoes previous alerts in recent years, including from Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as the godfather of AI. Hinton quit Google last year and warned the technology could lead to human extinction.
Some argue the AI apocalypse is overblown. But the AI threats also include the spread of misinformation, and cyberattacks on power grids, the internet, financial systems, research labs and a host of other industries that could disrupt everyday life.
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Even if used appropriately, AI is already impacting huge swaths of the job market and leading to increased inequality — an issue Pope Leo XIV warned about in May,
Some critics speculated if the call for a slowdown is a ploy by the big AI developers to block smaller competitors from entering the development race. Indeed, if the AI concerns are as real as advertised, there is nothing to stop the developers from hitting the brakes and implementing their own safeguards.
That would be the obvious and responsible thing to do.
But don’t look for profit-driven tech moguls to act responsibly. Just look at how social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and X have allowed hate and misinformation to spread, fueling mental health issues and destabilizing democracies.
One of the big challenges is trying to get competing AI companies to all agree on safeguards. And then getting other countries, especially China, to get on board.
King Charles III of Britain showed how to lead when he announced plans to bring together leading AI executives and other government officials to discuss how the fast-growing technology can be used as a force for good.
Some of the reforms Amodei of Anthropic called for include independent auditors to check the companies for safety standards and urged global cooperation in creating rules around AI development.
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This is not a new call for regulation. Three years ago, executives at OpenAI, Google and Microsoft endorsed the idea of a voluntary “AI pact” or a digital regulatory agency that could ensure safety standards.
Amid the gathering storm, Washington remains asleep. So far, it seems the only thing Congress has demanded of Big Tech is big money. Expecting legislators to develop meaningful AI regulations in a timely fashion is a herculean challenge.
But if anything, the biggest obstacle to the much-needed AI leadership, commonsense and doing what is best for humanity remains Donald Trump.
On his first day back in office last year, Trump rescinded former President Joe Biden’s executive order aimed at safeguarding AI technology. Despite bipartisan public opposition, Trump remains a big cheerleader for data centers needed to power the AI development.
(At the same time, Trump has been working hard to undo efforts to combat climate change — the other existential threat to humanity. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency just repealed limits on greenhouse gas emissions.)
Trump just as quickly dismissed calls from AI executives to rein in their own industry. In a manic social media post, Trump claimed without evidence that there was a “SICK conspiracy” against AI and data centers.
Trump said the only AI guardrails the country needs is “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.”
If only we had one.
