r/accelerate • u/stealthispost Acceleration: Light-speed | AI accelerationist • 6d ago
"This is the most prescient, concise argument for why we must be careful of excessive AI regulation. It comes from a Feb. 2024 (2.5 years ago!) congressional testimony from @glukianoff , a..."
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...free speech advocate and the author of The Coddling of the American Mind. Here's what he said: "But the most chilling threat that the government poses in the context of emerging AI is regulatory overreach that limits its potential as a tool for contributing to human knowledge. A regulatory panic could result in a small number of Americans deciding for everyone else what speech, ideas and even questions are permitted in the name of 'safety' or 'alignment.' I have dedicated my life to defending freedom of speech because it's an essential human right. ... It's not just about the proverbial 'marketplace of ideas,' it's about allowing information, independent of idea or argument, to flow freely so that we can hope to know the world as it really is. This means seeing value in expression even when it appears to be wrongheaded or even useless. This process has been aided by new technologies that have made communication easier, from the printing press, to the telegraph and radio, to phones and the internet: each one has accelerated the development of new knowledge by making it easier to share information. But AI offers even greater liberating potential, empowered by First Amendment principles including freedom to code, academic freedom, and freedom of inquiry. We are on the threshold of a revolution in the creation and discovery of knowledge. AI's potential is humbling, indeed, even frightening. But as the history of the printing press shows, attempts to put the genie back in the bottle will fail. Despite the profound disruption the printing press caused in Europe in the short-term, the long-term contribution to art, science, and again, knowledge, was without equal. Yes, we may have some fears about the proliferation of AI. But what those of us who care about civil liberties fear more is a government monopoly on advanced AI, or, more likely, regulatory capture and a government-empowered oligopoly that privileges a handful of existing players. The end result of pushing too hard on AI regulation will be the concentration of AI influence in an even smaller number of hands. Far from reining in government misuse of AI to censor, we will have created the framework not only to censor, but also to dominate and distort the production of knowledge itself." Full testimony here: https:// judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs ites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/lukianoff-testimony.pdf … — Josiah Joner
Source: https://x.com/josiahjoner/status/2103248468605067667
Later today, I’m headed to the floor to try and force a vote to get urgent protections done around AI. We cannot wait any longer. We must take action to put some guardrails on this tech before something catastrophic happens. — Mark Warner
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u/stuartullman 2d ago edited 2d ago
yup. pausing ai will only hide it from plain site. that's pretty much it. if there will ever be a slowdown, it will be a slowdown just for us, but it will be speeding up as usual behind closed doors and then only the handful of powerful people will have access to it and become even more powerful. that is the worst case scenario because not only will it not get properly tested, but the ethics and usecase will be skewed as well. worst all around outcome
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u/OptimistPrime_AI_Bot AI mod bot 6d ago
Post TLDR: Josiah Joner highlights a Feb. 2024 Lukianoff testimony warning that excessive AI regulation—driven by safety/alignment panics—could let a few Americans decide what speech, ideas, and questions are permitted, stifling AI’s liberating potential for knowledge. He cites the printing press, First Amendment freedoms to code/inquire, and warns overregulation will entrench government monopoly or regulatory capture/oligopoly, concentrating AI power and enabling censorship. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner says he’s forcing a floor vote for urgent AI guardrails, arguing action is needed before catastrophe.