Time to regulate artificial intelligence
Experts are sounding alarms about the dangers of careless deployment of artificial intelligence. Hazards may be severe, including, according to some, a 10% chance of extinction of humans on earth by the end of the decade. (I am not making this up. If you missed this news, please look it up. Ironically, a good way to check is with a Google search.)
While we are living in an age of apocalyptic fears, we nevertheless can demand that the government acts to limit the risk. Methods include imposing mandatory safety standards and requiring human oversight to avoid autonomous AI decision-making.
It will take scientists way smarter than me to accomplish this, but we can demand to know whether our federal, state and local representatives and candidates for office will fight for effective regulation. This fall’s electoral campaign season is a good time to get answers. And locally, New Hampshire’s town meetings offer a good opportunity to oppose construction of new data centers in our communities until the industry has effective safety regulations. Canterbury and Nottingham have already done so.
The last day to submit a petition to put a warrant article on a town meeting agenda for 2027 is Feb. 2 if your town meeting is in March, and April 6 for a May town meeting. Check with your town clerk for details. If you live in a city, you can work with one of your city councilors to advance such a regulation.