OpenAtom Conclusion: Ending Lassiez-faire AI
AI Demands National Purpose and Urgency
Generative AI heralds the dawn of a new era for which we, as a nation and as western society, are wholly unprepared. The power of free market capitalism and neural science has handed the world new capabilities that are poised to advance with great speed to unknown ends.
Unfortunately, these advances have come into a world that is essentially free of any guiding societal principles or legally binding obligations and controls. We must rapidly design and build our societal infrastructure for this new technology — both to fully unlock its potential and to manage its extensive risks. And we must do this in a dangerous world that is returning to competition between the great powers.
The next 50 years will be shaped by AI in the same way that the last 50 years were shaped by the transistor and the atom. There will be winners and losers. There will be those that emerge able to control their own destinies and those that are effectively disarmed and subject to bullying or outright attack by AI capable neighbors.
The nuclear age was born in a country that was highly focused due to a World War and subsequent emergence of the Soviet threat. The country had faith in its government and its leaders. That focus gave the country clarity and purpose as it wrestled, however imperfectly, to manage nuclear capabilities and strategy.
AI is being born into a very different landscape. Nation state levels of wealth and power are in the hands of a few, trillion-dollar, profit seeking companies. Despite recent efforts by the Biden Administration and various states, there is negligible government oversight and even less truly usable law. Our society is far from focused and distrust of government is at record levels. Indeed, we are distracted on virtually every level right now.
This is a moment of significant peril and opportunity that requires unity of purpose, aligning to a shared vision, and the implementation of a governing framework on par with our nuclear legacy.
Our society would never have allowed an OpenAtom approach to shape our nuclear destiny. We must summon the will to end our dangerous, laissez-faire, development of AI and instead lead as a nation and a society.
Much is at stake and time is short.
