AI: “Le Monde” publishes the speeches of Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon to supervise the new models
“I would like to say a few words about what I consider to be by far the most important aspect of the crisis we face, and how best to move forward. Let’s be clear. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are the most transformative technologies in human history. They will impact the lives of every man, woman and child in our country. (…)
AI is progressing exponentially every day. What we see today is the worst and stupidest version of AI we will ever see. The speed and scale of AI development over the past four years is almost beyond human comprehension. When the chatbot first launched, in November 2022, the AI models could write a short poem, a few tweets, and eventually an essay that roughly stood up. Today, AI models can escape human control, commit crimes by hacking other computers, and create viruses that never existed.
If you’re worried about what’s happening today, take a deep breath and try to imagine where AI will be in five years, ten years, twenty years. And this, in my eyes, is what is most extraordinary in the unprecedented transformations that AI is imposing on our society. While we live in a so-called democracy, people have had virtually no say in the AI revolution that is transforming the world in which they live. Congress, whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, has remained completely passive, and today we have a president whose ignorance on this issue is truly embarrassing. Virtually all decisions regarding the development of AI have been made by a handful of the world’s richest people: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Thiel, Ellison, Brin and a few others, whose main goal is to accumulate even more wealth and power than they already have, regardless of the consequences of their work for ordinary people.
Allow me to make a radical proposal. If the lives of every man, woman and child are to be fundamentally transformed by this technology, then decisions about AI should be made by the people, not a handful of oligarchs. That’s why I introduced a bill, American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act (Read here in pdf)which would require that half of the board members of large AI companies be appointed by the public. Big Tech oligarchs must no longer be allowed to decide the future of humanity.
In recent months, we’ve seen frightening news emerge almost daily that AI companies are losing control of the technology they develop. (…)
Leading scientists have been clear. AI poses an existential threat to humanity. Congress and governments around the world must act now, before it is too late. This is why, the week (of September 21), I will present with the representative (from Texas) Greg Casar a bill aimed at permanently banning the development of artificial superintelligence. That is to say, an AI more intelligent than any human being and capable of functioning independently, outside of human control. Like nuclear weapons, artificial superintelligence poses a threat to humanity and must be treated as such.
This law would immediately suspend the development of advanced AI systems until we have clear safety rules in place, developed by our nation’s most knowledgeable scientists. If this law is adopted, no AI model should be able to escape human control or deceive human beings. Most importantly, this law would hold these companies and their CEOs accountable if they break the law and recklessly put our lives at risk.
Let’s be very clear. Superintelligent AI that escapes human control would not just be an American problem. It wouldn’t be a Chinese problem. This would be a problem for all of humanity. This is why I very much hope that at their AI summit (September 24), President Trump will negotiate with President Xi a comprehensive treaty that puts a pause on the development of advanced AI and bans superintelligence.
We all remember what happened in the 1980s. There was the Soviet Union and the United States, Gorbachev and Reagan. They were neither great friends nor allies, they distrusted each other, but they understood that a nuclear war would not be good for the Soviet Union, nor for the United States, nor for the world. And they agreed on a nuclear treaty because the survival of humanity was at stake.
We are at a moment in history where the leaders of the United States and China must similarly come together to establish a ban on artificial superintelligence. We need to stop this globally. And, in a few weeks, we will have the opportunity to take a big step forward with this treaty.
I would now like to say a word to the CEOs of major AI companies who have recently told us that they are concerned about the dangers inherent in the technology they are developing. I tell them this: if you believe in democracy, if you believe that the people have the right to determine their future, stop pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into super PACs (political action committees) intended to defeat members of Congress and candidates who are fighting to impose real safeguards on AI. Stop this hypocrisy. (…)
Across the country, ordinary Americans living in red states, conservatives living in blue states, progressives, moderates, residents of swing states are mobilizing against the installation of data centers in their communities. They are rightly concerned about the consequences that these centers will have on the price of their electricity, on water consumption, on noise and, more broadly, on environmental degradation. (…)
We find ourselves at a dangerous and unprecedented moment in world history. It is therefore imperative that we all stand up to the owners of this industry, as well as to a government – under both political parties – that has not been, in any way, as offensive as it should have been.
AI has the potential to do extraordinarily positive things in healthcare, drug development and many other sectors. But ultimately our task as humans is to ensure that AI works for everyone, not just making a handful of the richest people on the planet even richer. Thank you so much. »
