EA - In DC, a new wave of AI lobbyists gains the upper hand by Chris Leong

The Nonlinear Library

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: In DC, a new wave of AI lobbyists gains the upper hand, published by Chris Leong on May 13, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. "The new influence web is pushing the argument that AI is less an existential danger than a crucial business opportunity, and arguing that strict safety rules would hand America's AI edge to China. It has already caused key lawmakers to back off some of their more worried rhetoric about the technology. ... The effort, a loosely coordinated campaign led by tech giants IBM and Meta, includes wealthy new players in the AI lobbying space such as top chipmaker Nvidia, as well as smaller AI startups, the influential venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and libertarian billionaire Charles Koch. ... Last year, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) declared himself "freaked out" by cutting-edge AI systems, also known as frontier models, and called for regulation to ward off several scary scenarios. Today, Lieu co-chairs the House AI Task Force and says he's unconvinced by claims that Congress must crack down on advanced AI. "If you just say, 'We're scared of frontier models' - okay, maybe we should be scared," Lieu told POLITICO. "But I would need something beyond that to do legislation. I would need to know what is the threat or the harm that we're trying to stop." ... After months of conversations with IBM and its allies, Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), chair of the House AI Task Force, says more lawmakers are now openly questioning whether advanced AI models are really that dangerous. In an April interview, Obernolte called it "the wrong path" for Washington to require licenses for frontier AI. And he said skepticism of that approach seems to be spreading. "I think the people I serve with are much more realistic now about the fact that AI - I mean, it has very consequential negative impacts, potentially, but those do not include an army of evil robots rising up to take over the world," said Obernolte." Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org