Foreword
It’s quiet. Too quiet.
Trump forms Super Intelligence Force, names National Intelligence Director as AI Czar
Director Jay Clayton had recently suggested existing product liability laws were sufficient for AI (SI, in Trump’s new terminology). The Force’s charter says it should:
develop plans for responding to SI-enabled threats to our society, while preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition
One of the Force’s four members is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm that has taken point in opposing AI regulation. Another is Emil Michael, the Pentagon official largely responsible for getting Anthropic blacklisted as a “supply chain risk” in March over its red lines against autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance.
The Force has been given 120 days to report on risks, opportunities, and regulations. That’s a long time in AI world, assuming this Force has any intention of taking action.
CNBC - Trump taps Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as AI czar
WSJ - New AI Czar Unveils Goals, Members of White House Task Force
The Washington Post - Trump launches ‘Super Intelligence Force’ after calls for AI slowdown
Sam Altman says we should “accept some bad things happening.”
You know, “for the benefits of this technology and people having agency.”
This was his explanation to Politico of how his AI philosophy differs from that of his rival, Anthropic, and its CEO Dario Amodei.
Given that context, the claim strikes me as technically true, morally bankrupt, and misleading, all at the same time.
Technically true because risk/reward tradeoffs are real.
Morally bankrupt because the risk his company is taking is that of human extinction. The risk/benefit math is not on his side.
Misleading because it constitutes a pair of dubious accusations about Anthropic — that it isn’t accepting of risks and that it doesn’t want people to have agency. Anthropic, like OpenAI, is also risking all of our lives by racing to self-improving and ultimately superhuman AIs. And I’ve seen no statements from Amodei about wanting to take away people’s agency, or credible plans from Altman to preserve it. Both are already stealing our agency by gambling with our lives without our permission.
Politico - Sam Altman to Decoded: ‘The world should accept some bad things happening’ for the benefits of AI
Upcoming U.S. open model set to show us whether $150 million in monthly compute costs can produce something competitive with open Chinese models.
Supported directly by chip giant Nvidia, the startup behind the model, Reflection, is a darling of those who talk about the global AI race in terms of market share. President Trump and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are both in this category.
Those compute costs are being paid to Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI (soon to become SpaceXSI, per a recent tweet by Musk).
Release timing for the new model is reported by Axios only as “soon.”
Axios - Nvidia-backed startup Reflection is set to shake up AI race
(X) Twitter - Tweet from Elon Musk
The analyses and opinions expressed on AI StopWatch reflect the views of the individual contributors and the sources they cover, and should not be taken as official positions of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.