Republicans push for a decadelong ban on states regulating AI | Hacker News Reader

Republicans push for a decadelong ban on states regulating AI

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13 pointsflornt13 comments

Ever notice how Republicans are die-hard for states' rights-right up until a state wants to regulate something they don’t like? When a state bans books, it’s freedom. When a state wants to regulate AI, it’s tyranny. Got it.

Republicans support whatever Fox News tells them to support. If it didn’t impact so many people negatively, it would be fascinating.

I find most efforts to regulate AI to be misplaced or futile.

But this resolution specifically safeguards AI "automated decision systems", which they define as:

> any computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues a simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, to materially influence or replace human decision making.

Recommendation algorithms [weaponize influence against people that] decide elections, change laws, and move markets. The US effectively mandated a minimum drinking age by tying it to interstate funding. Some 40 years later, you can (AFAIK) openly operate a recommendation algorithm aimed at getting masses of people to drink and drive, and still be eligible for federal grants and funding.

AI should be open and free of barriers. Our government should not give money to corporations that manipulate our emotions for control and profit. Sure, we can rabble to our tribe about "Republicans" and "the GOP", but federal funding and directing of the manipulation of Americans was enabled by the Smith–Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 under a split congress and democratic president.

Increasing corporate control over the public is currently a bipartisan issue, and words can't undo it.

I remember when the GOP rhetoric was anti "big tech".

Rather they're big tech's best buddy...

They know which way the wind blows, and how best to rile up the red-state folks in order to get their votes.

FWIW, The American liberal sentiment towards "big tech" is just as fickle, if not more. The funnier overall lesson is that neither side has learned to distrust the market. We've known for years that Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg are spineless sycophants.

How can anyone pretend to be surprised?

It must feel strange to be one of the few "movement" conservatives left, the folks who still believe in state's rights small, local government, personal responsibility, character mattering, things like that.

If you're one of the faithful, your national and state leadership was revealed as liars, with no moral principles and no spine. You've been abandoned after years of believing.

I really wish we had more libertarian (but not the absurdity of the libertarian party) party out there ... like some actual options along those lines.

Get me a Bull Moose Party!

Seems to me that the few libertarians that stuck with their ideology are in the same boat as the movement conservative believers. A lot of the state level Libertarian Parties are Trump boosters now, a similar abandonment of principles as conservative leaders did.

I agree libertarian ideals and how it ties in with the GOP has always been questionable.

I don’t know if I’m really asking for a splinter group because I don’t think anyone in the GOP now is trustworthy (some who aren’t active maybe) …. As much as I would enjoy a third-party.

Conservative means to me, emphasizing that rapid change in society has historically caused net harm. I see both major parties sitting on equal quantities of conservatism right now.

With all due respect, that's not the a good definition of conservatism before, or especially after, Trump. By your definition, the current conservatives exhibit little or none of your conservatism and the liberals have a lot.

You’ve described the realignment of conservatism that I see in American society.

Are Newt and Rush and Donald “owning the libs” with serial infidelity and multiple divorces? No, “owning the libs” only works directed at principled centrists or conservatives. Liberals are unperturbed by the “owning the libs” stuff because it’s only the kind of thing a bootlicking tool would say, like “heil Hitler”.

There’s another phenomenon (I’m in the Midwest where we say grace at a meal). Young people quoting Acts, while older people tend toward the Old Testament. I’m very careful when I say this: quoting the Old Testament is Judeo-Christian but it is distinctly different than following Christ as savior. This is crystal clear to young people in a paleoconservative way.

The embrace of Russia starting with Paul Manafort implanting words in the Republican Party platform in 2015. Someone like me sees the KGB fellas ascend at the end of Yeltsin and expects their old habits. Whether the guys around Putin can be trusted should be easy for a conservative to answer.

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