Notable Quotable: Marjorie Taylor Greene Admission
The image above is fake, generated with artificial intelligence (AI). It was easy enough to create with one single prompt: create a photo of Trump standing in boxer shorts over his golden toilet, questioning whether or not his popularity was really in the toilet.
Despite leading AI developers warning congress about the imminent dangers of AI and asking for some form of guardrails to slow down its proliferation, Trump's reconciliation bill does the opposite.
The massive legislation which totals over 1000 pages, surreptitiously imposes a ten-year ban on the enforcement of any and all state or local laws that regulate AI. This means legislation already enacted in over 20 states that aim to prevent AI's use in election campaigns will become null and void should this bill pass into law.
Marjorie Taylor Greene had something to say about this:
"Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there. We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous."
While we hope Greene sticks to her word and votes no on the bill when it returns to the house, the real question here is why would anyone blindly vote on a bill they haven't read? Isn't this what we pay our congressional leaders to do?
The AI generated image above is just one minor example of the power AI has to wipe out the truth by fooling the masses—not only during an election season, but during any newsworthy event of consequence.
Currently, a very perceptive person can spot a fake. For instance, in the image above, telltale signs are Trump's arms which would not look so muscular at his age. Also, he appears to be standing on something akin to topless flip-flops which in real life wouldn't stick to his feet.
Artificial intelligence is making rapid advances and getting much better at what it can do. Going far beyond fake images and deep-fake videos, advanced AI, in the wrong hands, can even launch missiles with nuclear warheads, putting an end to life.
Nobody should support this bill. Please put an end to this madness by calling your congressional leaders now.
Well Street
I suppose Congress's argument would be that reading all 1000 pages of the bill would take months, and dear leader can't be kept waiting. It's practically tradition that politicians in both parties at the federal, state, and local levels are guilty of not doing the jobs for which they were elected. Still, it's refreshing to hear something sensible come from Greene.
Regarding the advancement of AI, I was listening to a podcast with geopolitical author Peter Zeihan today. He says we don't have to be too concerned with AI becoming self-aware and annihilating humankind for a while. The nano-technology necessary for that to happen is many years from development, but that doesn't help us today when AI can disseminate misinformation and deep fakes, wreaking havoc on voter behavior and elections.
Slipstream
Submitting one-thousand-page bills is a tactic that's been used over and over to get pork passed. If it doesn't pertain to the bill's purpose, it shouldn't be allowed.
As far as pages 278-279 of the OBBB, that should be stripped out. California and some other states have strict internet privacy policies to protect consumers. States should have the same authority over AI.