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Comment by brokencode | Hacker News Reader

I think they’d try to get something through Congress to regulate the industry in a rules-based way.

The current admin flies by the seat of their pants and at least creates the perception of political decision making.

What rules, though?

Bernie and AOC (which aren't DNC mainstream, but prominent) had just pushed for a moratorium on "AI data centers" with a definition that includes "that are used for the development or operation of AI models at scale" (trivially sidesteppable by "we build this GPU farm to sell to whoever bids for compute" - which is actually true), plus a bunch of fancy extras bundled in like "The government must review and approve AI products before they are released to ensure that AI products are safe and effective.", while lacking actual definition of "AI" (given that we had "AI" systems since '50s).

Here's the full text: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/AI-Data-Ce...

Yeah, the bill has a cause - it recognizes some pain points. But then it haphazardly tries to address symptoms instead of underlying issues (environmental regulations, utility pricing, land use, job security), while pushing vaguely defined regulations that allow arbitrary application. As if misdirected measures and poorly defined laws aren't already a giant issue.

The whole point of Congress is to get a bunch of people with different ideas and hash them out. Ideas like this are an input, not an output, of Congress.

That’s how it should be. I’m not sure that’s how it works in practice. Certainly not today, when everything seems to be slogan/agenda-driven.

Congress did regulate weapons access when they passed the AECA almost 50 years ago. The rules have been refined via ITAR over time. This isn't arbitrary.

Obamacare, but for AI, where every American has to now pay a penalty to not use AI or something like that?

That was the last major thing the Democrats did, and healthcare has gotten substantially worse...but at least it's well regulated now.

The IRA and the CHIPS Act were the "last major thing" the Dems did, and both were far better policy for tech than anything out of this current administration.

That’d land better as a political hit if only it made any sense at all. Truly a low effort attempt.

> the perception of political decision making

The what? More like "the whims of an eighty year old in cognitive decline and those wishing to curry or keep his favor" - quite an expansive definition of "political decision making".

> More like "the whims of an eighty year old in cognitive decline..."

The previous administration was totally not exactly what's described here...

It wasn’t. Biden largely didn’t do much. The trump administration does illegal things that get struck down in courts on a daily basis. We’re all very desensitized to it.

But yes, Biden was old and cognitively not well. But his “whims” didn’t exist much, and they were always fairly reasonable. Trump is the most unreasonable president, most likely in US history. I would even categorize Andrew Jackson as more restrained.

The courts struck down many Biden policies as well. People just give those a pass because "SCOTUS is rigged" or something...

The only big one I remember is the college loan forgiveness thing.

> https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-dealt-bide...

That would be your politics coloring your memory.

Actually I probably just wasn't paying that much attention.

Ah, so those weren’t mostly 6-3 decisions along partisan lines?

Don't forget the blatant grift and corruption.

> I think they’d try to get something through Congress to regulate the industry in a rules-based way.

Is that a joke? We're back in a spat with Iran because Obama refused to engage with Congress, as required by our constitution, to enter the USA in any binding deal.

Any AI actions from the next admin is going to be executive yolos.

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