Sanders, Bannon, Judd attend DC conference on AI regulation risks

The conversation around regulating artificial intelligence has rapidly become so wide-reaching that on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders, Steve Bannon, and Ashley Judd all wound up at the same conference dedicated to tackling the technology's risks. But while the event showed that there's a real hunger to take on AI oligarchs, it's still not clear how that will translate into concrete action.

The "Pro-Human Assembly," hosted by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Washington, D.C., brought together AI industry researchers, policymakers, and civil society organization leaders in a particularly fraught moment, following a week of dire warnings about AI risks and alarming disclosures about recent safety incidents.

Congressional Divide on Display

House members' short speeches opening the conference illustrated just how divided Congress is on the right approach to regulating AI.

The Progressive Stance

Representative Greg Casar delivered the most stirring remarks, garnering multiple rounds of applause. "The answer is simple," he said of the solution to AI threats. "We ban AI systems that are too powerful for humans to control." The room applauded vigorously.

That comment previewed legislation that he and Senator Bernie Sanders are set to release next week, which would ban the development of artificial superintelligence.

Casar also directly called out Leading the Future, the AI industry-funded PAC that has spent millions to elect candidates it thinks will advance its agenda for relatively loose federal regulations on AI.

Later in the afternoon, Sanders joined Casar's criticism, directly addressing the CEOs of AI companies:

"If you believe in democracy, if you believe that the people have the right to determine their future, stop pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into super PACs."

Later in the day, Leading the Future's most prominent victim, Alex Bores, spoke to the crowd. Bores championed state-level AI regulations during his time in New York's Assembly, and Leading the Future spent millions to defeat his bid for Congress earlier this year.

Sanders' Anti-Oligarchy Message

In his speech, Sanders presented his familiar anti-oligarchy messaging:

"Virtually all of the decisions regarding the development of AI have been made by a handful of the richest people in the world, whose chief goal is to achieve even more wealth and more power than they already have, no matter what the impact their work has on ordinary people."

Sanders used the opportunity to plug his American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would distribute the wealth of AI companies and give the public a role in their management, and his call for a data center moratorium alongside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The Moderate Approach

Representative Lori Trahan, who recently has positioned herself as a leader on AI, outlined a more moderate position. Much of her speech focused on the philosophical concerns of AI development—at one point, she quoted Hannah Arendt; at another, she called human beings "ends in ourselves."

Only toward the end did she mention her bipartisan legislation on AI, introduced with GOP Representative Jay Obernolte, and she was careful to frame it as a small incremental step that should be easy for everyone to get on board with:

"We need a long sequence of small correct decisions, and we need to start making them today. So let me tell you one Congress could make."

Trahan pitched her legislation as a commonsense regulation that won't overly stifle AI companies. Leading the Future hasn't endorsed Trahan and Obernolte's bill, but said in August it would review the proposal.

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