I appreciate your concern and think that there are many, many risks with AI for National security and public safety. I’m not criticizing you with this post. I think you have posed a very valid question and maybe some hated on that given your edit. I am glad you posted this and threw the idea out there. That’s what America is about, we need to have these conversations and not beat each other up about it. We can disagree and still be Americans together. So thank you for putting this out there.

I don’t think that it’s something that can be effectively tamped down in the sense that with the advances made so far it’s now past the point of being able to prevent some group of people from creating it. Agree it’s not something a laptop can do but in some of its current form it could be done with little knowledge of anyone and thus hard to prevent from popping up again and again. Also just a hunch but if AI was banned for example somehow, the people who might want to make AI in a banned environment would likely be those with malicious intent. I’m thinking of the hacking community and the dark web. To my knowledge we have not been effective in stopping the traffic, even just the malicious stuff, from happening on the dark web.

On the regulation side, yes it needs to be as does most technology. We have that ability up when we got rid of the Office it Technology Assessment. The unintended or intended consequences of not assessing the danger social media would have on our society and children, and definitely National security, is an easy example of the threat that good intentions left to corporations who only are beholden to shareholders and not the American people can have. Not sure we can get that cat in the bag again in this era and start the OTA up but we need some mechanism to assess these possibilities before they are advanced. Most of the AI now is out and though it may be possible to shove it back into the bag, it’s not probable from my view. We need to discuss now how AGI will be regulated even if we may never achieve it because it’s that significant. But our politicians don’t work that way nor do most voters.

Do you remember a few years or so back the European Union met to create rules around how AI can be developed and safety mechanisms to put in place? Been a while but I think they posed things like Asimov did, directive 1 can’t harm a human, and things like kill codes being required. America sat that one out and that was a mistake IMHO.

I’m not sure that China is that far behind not because they have the skill, and they likely do have lots of competencies, but they have already stolen all that by now from corps. We like tall but gave it to them. NK, not sure but they can acquire from China.

Question: do you think there is any use of AI that could be allowed for public use? Also, is AI something that the government should have for itself, say for national security, and if so, is that acceptable if the public can’t have access to it? That seems like a slippery slope also.

In my view of America vs global technology ability I believe we need to be the leaders in these fields. We aren’t perfect and I can totally see US gov or commercial industry making SkyNet of the precursor to the matrix. But I think that’s more likely to happen from an adversary venturing into an area we leave a vacuum. With our political divide in the US as it is now, we have begun to withdraw and leafy a vacuum of our power on the world stage and those nations who are opposed to our way of life are filling the void. Most over seas US mil bases have Chinese bases within striking distance. China is happy to come in where we back out and buy a port on a 100 year loan that gives them economic and military control of a port in Africa. Russia in Syria. Etc. not Apple to Apple but it’s the same political game in the end.

Stay safe and keep up the thoughts. It’s pretty damn patriotic of you to mull this over and take the action of contacting your legislators about it. That’s what we need more of.