by imiric | 2025-09-30 07:36:45+00:00
I'm not sure why you're only focusing on speech. "True threats" doesn't come close to covering all the possible use cases and ways that "AI" tools can be harmful to society. We can't apply legal precedent to a technology without precedent.

> "This technology is different" is what every regulator says about every new technology. Print was different. Radio was different. The internet was different.

"AI" really is different, though. Not even the internet, or computers, for that matter, had the potential to transform literally every facet of our lives. Now, I personally don't buy into the "AGI" nonsense that these companies are selling, but it is undeniable that even the current generation of these tools can shake up the pillars of our society, and raise some difficult questions about humanity.

In many ways, we're not ready for it, yet the companies keep producing it, and we're now deep in a global arms race we haven't experienced in decades.

> I want the government to stay out of mandating content restrictions. Not because I trust corporations, but because I trust the government even less with the power to define what information is too dangerous to share.

See, this is where we disagree.

I don't trust either of them. I'm well aware of the slippery slope that is giving governments more power.

But there are two paths here: either we allow companies to continue advancing this technology with little to no oversight, or we allow our governments to enact regulation that at least has the potential to protect us from companies.

Governments at the very least have the responsibility to protect and serve their citizens. Whether this is done in practice, and how well, is obviously highly debatable, and we can be cynical about it all day. On the other hand, companies are profit-seeking organizations that only serve their shareholders, and have no obligation to protect the public. In fact, it is pretty much guaranteed that without regulation, companies will choose profits over safety every time. We have seen this throughout history.

So to me it's clear that I should trust my government over companies. I do this everyday when I go to the grocery store without worrying about food poisoning, or walk over a bridge without worrying that it will collapse. Shit does happen, and governments can be corrupted, but there are general safety regulations we take for granted every day. Why should tech companies be exempt from it?

Modern technology is a complex beast that governments are not prepared to regulate. There is no direct association between technology and how harmful it can be; we haven't established that yet. Even when there is such a connection, such as smoking causing cancer, we've seen how evil companies can be in refuting it and doing anything in their power to preserve their revenues at the expense of the public. "AI" further complicates this in ways we've never seen before. So there's a long and shaky road ahead of us where we'll have to figure out what the true impact of technology is, and the best ways to mitigate it, without sacrificing our freedoms. It's going to involve government overreach, public pushback, and company lobbying, but I hope that at some point in the near future we're able to find a balance that we're relatively and collectively happy with, for the sake of our future.