I’m a Congressman Who Codes. A.I. Freaks Me Out

There's an ongoing fracas in the art community of consent around models consuming and benefiting of others work. I'd argue the bigger issue is that it encourages a perpetuation of cold and lifeless facsimiles, imitating art. If 5-10 years from now all the art I see in my everyday life ends up being AI vomit I'll be that much closer to necking myself. It's development is endemic of corporate cost-saving. Art costs money to manufacture, now a facsimile of it costs next to nothing to manufacture and at a speed that real artists can't compete with.

My only hope at least for what seems to be an inevitable development is that real art will be valued more as a result, assuming we can tell the difference. It's like choosing flooring for a house: linoleum with a print of hard-wood parquetry will look good enough if you don't look too closely, but it's not the same as the real thing and everyone knows it.

AI weapons are terrifying. We should probably ban them for use on us soil. But is it ethical to use something elsewhere that’s so terrifying we would never want it used on us? (Any ethicists would answer “no”). Then the question is will someone else build AI weapons? Obviously yes. Then we have to ask is it sensible to avoid building AI weapons if someone else is doing it. Probably not. It’s a delicate and difficult problem. One we should probably get to work on.

The economic disruption of AI will in some ways be more catastrophic. We should probably get to work on that too. Some interesting solutions have been proposed.

https://moores.samaltman.com/

> I’m a Congressman Who Codes

I don’t know what’s worse. Those without any idea crafting laws for our industry, or those who pretend to know.