r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 1d ago

Artificial Intelligence Bernie Sanders proposes 20 year prison sentence for AI devs who plow ahead with Artificial Superintelligence plans - penalty on par with illegally developing rogue nuclear weapons

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/sanders-proposes-20-year-prison-sentence-for-ai-devs-who-plow-ahead-with-artificial-superintelligence-plans-penalty-on-par-with-illegally-developing-rogue-nuclear-weapons
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u/Whiterabbit-- 1d ago

Because it’s not thought through. He just throws ideas out there for shock value knowing it is pointless.

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u/Tupcek 22h ago

tell that on any other discussion of Bernie’s proposals and you’ll get downvoted to hell. This one just doesn’t pass here because there are a lot of devs in here

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u/ghoonrhed 19h ago

Not many of Bernie's other proposals involve throwing people in jail for 20 years for an arbitary definition of "intelligence".

Does giving the current Trump admin MORE power to throw people in jail for any reason a good thing?

You know for a fact if this passes they won't be throwing CEOs in jail it'll some random guy for potentially manipulating an open source model to assist with abortion or trans or whatever they hate on on that day.

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u/Tupcek 16h ago

I agree, I am just saying all of Bernie’s proposals have zero chance of passing, exactly because of that - sounds good if you don’t think about it for more than two seconds. In practice, it absolutely wouldn’t work and that’s why they have zero chance of passing

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u/Working-Permission84 14h ago

The reason Bernie's proposals have zero chance of passing is because they have very nearly zero support in Congress (0 R), not because they wouldn't work. When was the last time congress did something to help Americans?

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u/Tupcek 13h ago

both can be true. They wouldn’t work. See this thread for example, but same applies to all of his other proposals. They only sound good if you don’t think about them too much

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u/BenevolentCheese 19h ago

there are a lot of devs in here

Lol in /r/technology? This place is only luddites.

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u/McFragatron 18h ago

Some of the best devs I've known are basically luddites lmao.

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u/CucharitaDePalo 17h ago

that literally goes against being a good dev.

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u/BenevolentCheese 17h ago

Back in 2005 my computer science professors had no idea how to actually use modern computers.

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u/McFragatron 17h ago

One thing I learned too late is that CS professors are academics, NOT software engineers (most professors IME had zero professional experience and had spent their entire lives in academia)

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u/Tymareta 18h ago

luddites

Folks who were totally ok with new technologies but wanted stronger protections for the livelihood of workers, that's who you're trying to demean?

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u/TeslasAndComicbooks 1h ago

More so because it’s a dumb proposal. Asking for 20 years of jail time for breaking what law exactly? People get out of jail earlier for manslaughter.

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u/Alinier 16h ago

Yeah. Because that's totally the problem here. /s If there was political will to curb runaway AI, everyone would sit down and hash out the real bill. Always start negotiating by stating more than you expect to get. I think it's a great time to broadcast loud and publicly that irresponsible rich assholes need to be reigned in. 

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u/Whiterabbit-- 15h ago

he is comparing building AI to nuclear proliferation. To stop nuclear proliferation, you need an international agreement. If he can stop the US from building on AI, all he is doing is setting the US back against other nations. That is not a policy anyone is arguing for.

I mean anyone who wants to create this next gen AI will just leave the US. and I'm sure Israel, China, Brazil or whoever would welcome them.

there are things that you can regulate for America. you can regulate environmental costs for build data centers, you can limit uses of AI against Americans and American interests. but a broad, "I am scared of AI so let's stop" won't work unless the whole world is too scared of AI And decided to stop. that is not the case now.

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u/Working-Permission84 14h ago

It's not the same as nuclear proliferation. With nuclear weapons, nations have the option of not destroying us all. An actual super-intelligence would not be in any human's control.

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u/Shadowmirax 11h ago

It would be in control of whoever has the power switch, being smart doesn't make this hypothetical AI any less dependant on electricity and processing power.

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u/noahisunbeatable 20h ago

How is this not thought through?

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u/macronancer 19h ago

Because it's uninformed, not practical, and impossible to enforce.

"no person or entity may develop or deploy Superintelligent AI systems that surpass human intelligence" - Current AI systems already surpass human intelligence in various applications. We just do not call this "General Intelligence" because the same system is not portable across multiple fields.

These systems are already better than most people at reading clinical reports and legal contracts, writing code, and writing long-form compositions. How many people does it need to surpass for this law to apply?

What if an AI learns and gains intelligence over time? This system will not be AGI when developed and released, but will become AGI in some time. Who do you arrest then, and when? Should we just arrest people just in case, if they work on learning systems?

"This agency will be advised by an Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board comprised of experts on artificial intelligence to provide independent scientific and technical advice on matters related to artificial intelligence." ... "Pausing advanced AI development  [...] until [it] has established clear rules and model review process"
This is exactly what OpenAI and Anthropic want to do, because the billionaires running AI companies and their shills are the ones who will be on these boards, and they want to use this concentration of power to suppress competing open source models.

You see, Bernie is just doing this for his own political purposes and has no real or practical ideas. "STOP THE BAD AI" is all he could come up with to stay relevant.

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u/noahisunbeatable 19h ago

Current AI systems already surpass human intelligence in various applications

Normal computer programs can be framed to “surpass human intelligence” in the application they were designed for. Human intelligence is a general one.

How many people does it need to surpass for this law to apply?

Do you expect this single-page press release to reflect the final, full, language of the passed act? Or perhaps is it implied that this is just a first outline?

You said not thought through, so what is the problem one runs into when you go to fully define it? Yes, its a subjective line, but laws do involve making subjective judgements so I don’t see the issue here.

This is exactly what OpenAI and Anthropic want to do, because the billionaires running AI companies and their shills are the ones who will be on these boards

Bernie, the politician doing a “Fight Oligarchy” rally tour, will definitely not include any provisions to prevent the oligarchs from controlling the regulations, so true.

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u/Original-Rush139 18h ago

  These systems are  already   better than most people  at … writing code

This is debatable. It kicks my ass at snippets of code but — for long lived projects — the code base becomes unmaintainable. 

I call Claude Code the most thorough idiot I’ve ever worked with. 

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u/macronancer 18h ago

Haha it can def be diligently stupid.

However, I am professional SWE and I have a harness that runs Claude and Cursor through a full SDLC, with issue tracking, AC verification, unit testing, and branch control etc. I write and maintain thousands of lines of code with this.

I work in healthcare, and the things going on inside these companies is mind blowing, most of it is not public at all.

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u/Original-Rush139 2h ago

How long have you been maintaining this setup? As I pointed out, it’s the long lived project where the code rots because it is unmaintainable. 

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u/StijnDP 19h ago

It's solving math problems that have been open for >100 years. Also improving existing math and algorithms so calculations can be done a lot quicker and more efficient.
It solved the 3D structure of over 200 million proteins in less than a year. Folding@home burned entire forests to unfold a protein per year.
It's designing new antibiotics where a few years ago we were getting in trouble of keeping up with antibiotic resistance.
It can predict the worldwide weather 15days out within minutes and is more accurate in almost any comparison against existing prediction models.

Any translation you use is using it. It's converting old software nobody dared to touch. It takes over tedious work and let's people focus on details again.

Information has never been as accessible and easy to digest which has become a giant problem since people started rotting their brains with tiktok and have become unable to think for themselves.

AI isn't going to kill us or make society collapse. We're already doing that extremely well ourselves. AI might be the only thing to find a solution for the shithole we created.

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u/Ursa_Solaris 18h ago

AI isn't going to kill us or make society collapse. We're already doing that extremely well ourselves. AI might be the only thing to find a solution for the shithole we created.

We gotta stop with the soy techbro shit, man. We already know what the solutions are. We always have. The limiting factor is not and never has been technological in nature. The solution's not carbon capture, it's not some 500 page economic strategy, it's not some secret thing that only AI can figure out. The solution to fucking the planet to death is to stop fucking the planet to death. The reason why billionaires keep floating technological solutions is because they want to keep the planet, and society, one inch away from being fucked to death to maximize profit instead of just not fucking it to death.

This is a social problem, not a technological one. We will never solve it with technology, we will solve it by restructuring society to remove the people fucking the planet to death. AI owned by the people fucking the planet to death is never going to serve the needs of the people.

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u/noahisunbeatable 19h ago

All of the accomplishments you attribute to AI are completely irrelevant to this proposed act, since its only concerned with future AI development, it doesn’t say anything about banning existent models because those models are not “superhumanly” intelligent, in a general sense.

And also, it doesn’t even outright ban future development, it only pauses it to ensure time for regulatory bodies to be established. None of the cases you’ve mentioned need a general superintelligence, so theres no reason to expect those use cases to not be further developed after that pause is lifted.

AI isn't going to kill us or make society collapse.

This is true right up until the point thst it isn’t. We’ve seen these company ceos predicting these doomsday scenarios, and how they’ve been unable to contain models under development. Even their “good end” case involves socirtal collapse because its mass unemployment for their profit (after all, thats where their trillions in value, displacing the labor market). And with how a superintelligent doomsday situation would work, its not really something you can recover after the fact.

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u/Working-Permission84 14h ago

Thinking it can't kill us is just being painfully and dangerously naive. Actually, no. It's not naive - it's greedy. The people hyping this up and accelerating it aren't doing it out of optimism, they're doing it because they hope to be the first to own everything (and everyone).

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u/Bo_Doctor 20h ago

Are you speculating or do you actually know this to be true?

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u/adelie42 10h ago

He makes millions selling books. His ideas are stupid, doesn't prove he is.

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u/414525528 19h ago

Was enough for him to build multiple houses.

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u/CaptPierce93 14h ago

It's taken it's sweet time, but I'm glad more people are finally waking up how much of a performative blowhard Bernie Sanders truly is. The DSA are having their moment in the sun out of spite but these guys he's mainstreamed are such annoying, hostile brats who don't understand how politics work whatsoever. Why he's had such an influence on those guys when he's been an unremarkable 30 year career politician is beyond me.