I’m skeptical that the government regulation will amount to much that addresses the main problems. Highly profitable industries have routinely engaged in regulatory capture, often for decades, before things are bad enough that the population as a whole demands change. Oil and gas companies, pharmaceutical companies, etc., all come to mind as current examples of “regulated” industries that do pretty much what they like. Before that we had examples like tobacco, asbestos, narcotics-laced health tonics, etc., that took decades before they were really impeded by regulations. Politicians, at least in the U.S., are coin-operated and will put a finger on the scale in whatever direction results in their maximum profit.
Also, note that the examples above are pretty well-understood issues with little technical nuance. The examples of government regulation of technology are even worse; technology advances so much more quickly than legislation that the regulators are generally fighting the last war. I mean, I’m glad that the US Congress decided that it was OK for consumers to use Betamax recorders to tape TV shows and skip the commercials, but I’m not sure they’re going to get any agreement on technical aspects of AI while those particular issues are still relevant.
I’m skeptical that the government regulation will amount to much that addresses the main problems. Highly profitable industries have routinely engaged in regulatory capture, often for decades, before things are bad enough that the population as a whole demands change. Oil and gas companies, pharmaceutical companies, etc., all come to mind as current examples of “regulated” industries that do pretty much what they like. Before that we had examples like tobacco, asbestos, narcotics-laced health tonics, etc., that took decades before they were really impeded by regulations. Politicians, at least in the U.S., are coin-operated and will put a finger on the scale in whatever direction results in their maximum profit.
Also, note that the examples above are pretty well-understood issues with little technical nuance. The examples of government regulation of technology are even worse; technology advances so much more quickly than legislation that the regulators are generally fighting the last war. I mean, I’m glad that the US Congress decided that it was OK for consumers to use Betamax recorders to tape TV shows and skip the commercials, but I’m not sure they’re going to get any agreement on technical aspects of AI while those particular issues are still relevant.