‘Regulate Me!’: Artificial intelligence edition
Timothy P. Carney
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Sam Altman, the CEO of the leading artificial intelligence company OpenAI, told Congress to pass more regulations on his industry.
So, of course, you get a shocked reaction from plenty of sources. According to Axios, “Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called it ‘historic’ that a company was coming to Congress pleading for regulation.”
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Liberal lobbyist and political operative Warren Kinsella stated the ignorant conventional wisdom perfectly:
Sigh. Yes, actually, it is often that you see industry leaders lobbying for regulations that will increase the costs for potential future competitors and boost the power of the politically connected.
This happens every day. Off the top of my head:
Allstate’s CEO wrote a New York Times op-ed in 2009 titled “Regulate Me, Please.”
Here’s a Reuters story on the world’s most famous hedge funder in 2009: “Famed hedge fund manager James Chanos, best known for his early spotting of Enron’s flaws, called on Wednesday for Congress to pass a law requiring Securities and Exchange Commission regulation of hedge funds and other investment firms.”
Obama’s illegal regulations of tax preparers were literally written by the former CEO of H&R Block, who, along with TurboTax, supported the stricter regulations which would profit them.
The American Bankers Association in 2010 lauded new credit card regulations. “These rules — the most comprehensive ever seen — herald a new era for America’s credit card customers,” Kenneth J. Clayton, the senior vice president and general counsel for ABA Card Policy, said. “Many practices that frustrated customers have been eliminated, and credit card users will now benefit from greater control and clearer terms for their accounts.”
Goldman Sachs declared in 2010 that “we support measures that would require higher capital and liquidity levels.”
Here’s a 2011 story from Reuters: “’It’s not often you see someone advocating for more regulation, but we are because we believe this is a consumer protection issue,’ said Marilyn Mohman-Gillis of the CFP Board.”
Insurance agents were the chief advocates of new regulations on selling flood insurance.
Uber in 2020 lobbied for stricter regulations on ride-sharing apps.
Philip Morris supported stricter regulation of tobacco and so on. Big Business lobbies for stricter regulations every single day.
But Democrats like to pretend that their Big Government agenda is a populist broadside to Big Business, and many Republicans buy this false general premise. The result is that credulous Republicans think, “If even the business wants regulation, then it must be fine.”
This was how we got the lightbulb law: Phillips, GE, and Sylvania all supported it, and so former Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) supported it.
And with AI, Republicans are falling for the trick again.
“Talk in plain English and tell us what rules to implement,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Altman and the other panelists at the hearing. This is almost a perfect echo of five years ago, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) he supported the regulation of social media. Graham replied, “Would you submit to us some proposed regulations?”
Kennedy actually went further: When Altman called for a new federal agency to regulate AI, Kennedy suggested Altman should run it.
So if this goes as usual, Altman will get the regulations he wants, innovation will be stifled, his company will preserve its market share and be free from competitive pressure, and the congressional staffers and bureaucrats who write the laws and regulations will cash out to work for Open AI.