AI safety institutes are sprouting like mushrooms, and they're equally hallucinogenic.

Pleasantly surprised that even RAND has come around on open source AI and national security

When it comes to AI regulation, what people do with the knowledge should be what matters.

On this AI + a16z podcast episode with Anjney Midha, Mistral AI cofounder @ArthurMensch explains that LLMs are like a modern printing press, making it easier to access knowledge.

'Models

This is like the opening scene from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where Arthur wakes up to the govt bulldozing his house and the govt's like 'well why didn't you object to the plan when we posted about it in the bulletin no one ever reads and you had no idea existed.'

Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha This statement reminds me of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' :

Most startups and founders have no clue how quickly SB 1047 could be law:
- June 27 - next committee deadline
- Aug 31 - last day to pass the Assembly
- Sep 30 - deadline for Governor's action

You could walk out of this year’s NYE party and the law would be in effect

Like this

Anjney Midha Senator Scott Wiener Agreed. Scott: this bill is awful. Please listen to engineers and technologists who are actually building companies in SF and CA.

Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha The primary sponsor of the bill says it is being fast tracked

Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha Sir - this looks worse than you can ever imagine. Throwing the label ‘conspiracy theory’ for anything you disagree with or wish wasn’t the truth is not leadership in any way, shape or form.

Eric Florenzano Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha Massively disappointed in Senator Scott Wiener

Senator Scott Wiener There’s no conspiracy

You’re pushing to give CA the most onerous AI regulations in the US, including liability for builders

Most AI builders have yet to weigh in, but they will soon

Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha I think many of us saw you take sensible policy stances locally and, frankly, trusted you would do the same at a state level. I, for one, was simply trusting & not scrutinizing your work, but am now paying a lot more attention.

Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha Senator, introducing such a sweeping bill so soon while the real specialists are still busy exploring the applications and capabilities, is technically “rushing”. You aren’t giving anyone time to even build the first generation of products. In contrast SB822/460 were enacted

Senator Scott Wiener Anjney Midha Address the similar or greater performance thing

And also the bill from last year that was an attempt at the same thing but with 10^23 FLOPS

This is a backdoor attempt to pause AI

Let’s talk about what is true:
- you’ve cherry picked two Canadian academics to back the bill who are not accountable to it, and not representative of consensus view
- you’ve aligned with a fringe group who is primarily concerned with science fiction AI risks
- you’ve met with

💯

Most startups and founders have simply been too trusting (and busy shipping for customers) to date, but SB 1047 is a step too far

Anjney Midha Senator Scott Wiener It’s not too late for Scott to make major changes

But major changes he needs to make

Doesn’t matter if accidental or intentional. Same outcome - SB 1047 will drive startups out of California

This is what happens when policymakers try regulating infrastructure instead of focusing on harmful end uses