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Philip Dowdell

This is a special post for quick takes by Philip Dowdell. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar (D-TX) have announced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would "permanently ban the development and deployment of superintelligent AI and temporarily pause advanced AI development until a federal regulator has established safety rules. It would also direct the U.S. to pursue international agreements to prevent superintelligence from being developed anywhere in the world."

So far this is just an announcement, so fulltext of the bill is not available, but there is a press release and one-page summary out.

9Marcus Plutowski2mo

Clearly someone on his team is rather tuned in; the press release mentions both biorisk and quotes of agents from the OpenAI incident investigation. It's also interesting that he specifically calls out Anthropic/OpenAI/etc. as violating their self-imposed guardrails: > Last year, Meta said it would “stop development,” and OpenAI said it would “halt further development” once their technologies reach beyond its ability to operate safely and unless safeguards are in place. Anthropic made a similar commitment in 2023, saying it would “pause the scaling and/or delay the deployment of new models” if the technology outpaces its own guardrails. None of these companies have taken meaningful steps to back up these words. Instead, they are racing to develop more and more advanced AI without proper safety precautions. There's been a lot of discussion here (e.g.) as to whether or not Anthropic should be considered to have breached their RSP, so it's at least notable that Bernie has firmly come down on 'yes'.

22Philip Dowdell2mo

It appears ControlAI's ASI ban draft bill was an influence on this one. The wording on the definition of Artificial Superintelligence is very similar. Sanders/Casars': "Artificial Superintelligence” means: An artificial intelligence system that exhibits or can easily be modified to exhibit capabilities that match or exceed human cognitive performance and capabilities across a broad range of domains or tasks. Or AI systems that have sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the disempowerment of humanity, including by overthrowing or undermining the U.S. government. ControlAI's: Artificial Superintelligence (referred to in this Act as “ASI”) means artificial intelligence that exhibits, or can easily be modified to exhibit, all of the characteristics described below. * The AI can enable a device or software to operate autonomously and effectively for long stretches of time in open-ended environments and in pursuit of broad objectives. * The AI can enable a device or software to match or exceed human cognitive performance and capabilities across most domains or tasks, including those related to decisionmaking, learning, and adaptive behaviors. * The AI can enable a device or software to potentially exhibit the capacity to independently modify or enhance its own functions such that the device or software could plausibly circumvent human control or oversight, and have the capability to pose a threat of overthrowing or undermining the U.S. Government. They also both impose penalties of up to 20 years in prison on persons, although Control AI's had potential life penalties for those who knowingly develop/fund ASI, up to 20 years for people who recklessly cause progress towards ASI.

Confirmed, from the Washington Post in a brief interview with Conner Leahy:

"ControlAI, a nonprofit devoted to banning superintelligence, said it’s been working closely with Casar and Sanders’s teams on the bill."