During my 17 years writing this column, I’ve learned a few lessons that I have since followed long and strong. I can’t be an expert on every topic, so when in doubt or under-informed, I reach out to subject matter experts, read, learn, and then write the column.
I can also share that although Grammarly helps me catch typos and more obvious grammatical errors, these words and thoughts do remain mine alone and were produced without the benefit of Artificial Intelligence. This content remains AI free.
As I have written earlier, the math for massive data center construction just does not compute, neither on an economic or environmental basis. But rather than just play the alarmist, I looked to the subject matter experts.
Multiple recently reported security and protocol breaches by AI programs and agents still under development have hacked other companies, lied to their creators, hidden code for self-replication on the Internet, and are sounding more and more like a despotic science fiction film.
Skynet may not be online as of yet, but it feels close. As alarm bells began to ring across Big Tech, the most visible leaders are speaking out Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO: “We must pace the Frontier.
Anthropic is unilaterally committing to the first of these steps. We’ll provide third-party evaluators, with permanent, employee- level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents and assess model’s alignment during training.” (From the introduction of an essay calling for regulation, collaboration, and a slow-down of the AI arms race).
Elon Musk, XAI, SpaceEx, and Tesla CEO: “Dario is right.” Musk adds that he has been sounding alarms about the pace of AI development and lack of guardrails for some time now.
“I think it’s quite difficult for someone in the government who doesn’t have a deep technical understanding and isn’t driving the frontier of AI to know whether something should be released or not.”
Sam Altman, Founder and CEO, Open AI: “Pacing will be well worth this cost. No amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness.”
Bill Gates, Founder, Microsoft: “AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths.
So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100 percent, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as a combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools ... No one thinks self-regulation is enough.”
Meanwhile, the Titans of Tech recently convened for a White House AI Summit on Sept 29, when President Donald Trump met with nearly 20 top tech industry leaders, including Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Amodei, and others.
They gathered to discuss AI innovation, potential regulation, and U.S. competitiveness versus China’s efforts in the AI development race.
Though we hope this largely photo-op event is not the end of discussions, the decisions so far from that meeting are essentially two-fold: the AI titans should essentially “self-regulate,” and from the President: they actually have more of “a branding problem.”
Trump calling the development of computing power well beyond the ability of human thought “Super Intelligence” – and now calling these innovations “Artificial Intelligence” – is part of the problem, as it causes the American people to think the potential benefits of AI are themselves “fake.”
I have a better idea...
What about just calling a spade a spade and re-branding AI as “Fake Intelligence?” Oops.
Google’s Chatbot tells me that name has already been trademarked by the White House to explain the rationale Israel gave us for what they believed would be a six or so week war with Iran.
The potential threat of AI is expanding, and breaking out of its own development models on an almost weekly business.
While Congress and the federal government may not move quickly enough, now is the time to raise voices of concern, tap the brakes, and slow the pace and race for development.
These folks are investing trillions in a platform they admittedly cannot totally explain or control – and which the canaries in their coal mine clearly state might wipe many of us off the planet.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not quite ready to go yet.