Florida Republicans’ AI fears buoyed by Anthropic researcher bombshell

Por Andrew Atterbury and Kimberly Leonard — POLITICO – TOP Stories

MIAMI — Florida’s leading artificial intelligence skeptics — Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Attorney General James Uthmeier — got new supporting evidence Wednesday for their fight to slow down the surging technology.

The two GOP leaders publicly highlighted the open resignation of a former researcher who worked at Anthropic and OpenAI to drive home the need for Florida to regulate AI amid inaction from the federal government and Congress. The researcher’s warning that “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources” has made waves since it was posted on social media, stoking fears in Washington about something Florida’s Republican governor has been criticizing for months.

“While some AI hysterics is aimed towards investors in advance of upcoming IPOs, that there is even a possibility that these technologies would elude human control is alarming,” DeSantis said Wednesday on social media.

“Technology should enhance the human experience; it should never supplant it!”

Former Anthropic researcher Jason Coxon rocked the tech world this week with alarming claims that unchecked AI models could feasibly destroy the world in only a few years. But even more, Coxon alleged the tech giants rabidly pushing for AI advancement know of the dangers and are “gambling with our lives.”

These ringing alarm bells appear to have lit a flame with federal lawmakers, who are renewing their calls to regulate AI. But in Florida, these fears are nothing new from DeSantis and Uthmeier.

Uthmeier is already leading the charge to pass state-level AI guardrails by advocating for new laws to allow his office to criminally charge companies for illegal acts carried out with the use of their chatbots, such as creating child sexual abuse materials. The latest report of a researcher “reaching out, screaming for help, saying, ‘what I’m seeing scares me to death’” underscores the need to legislate AI, Uthmeier said Wednesday.

“You’ve all read the Frankenstein book or seen the movie. If you create a monster and it goes out and kills somebody, you can’t just wipe your hands and say, ‘Oh, not my fault. I didn’t want it to do that,’” Uthmeier said during a Wednesday event in Miami. “We’ve got to buckle down fast. We’ve got to get out ahead of this quickly.”

Officials with Anthropic did not immediately have a comment about Florida officials’ critiques on Wednesday. But the company, a major tech firm valued at nearly a trillion dollars, has attempted to downplay the dire warning from their former researcher after initially agreeing with Coxon’s characterization of the situation.

“I think the risk from present models is low,” Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s staff lead on keeping the technology aligned with human goals and values, posted on social media Tuesday night. “What I am worried about is superintelligence arising from recursive self-improvement, as we have said is happening faster than we thought.”

Although two of Florida’s top Republican leaders want action on AI, the state’s next lawmaking session isn’t slated to begin until March. At that point, Florida will have a new governor — and Uthmeier must also win election in November. Even then, passing tech regulations is no sure thing; a proposed AI “bill of rights” sought by DeSantis this year was shot down by the GOP-dominated House, which sided with President Donald Trump’s call for federal policies.

In the meantime, Uthmeier, who has emerged as a major AI critic alongside DeSantis, is still targeting AI through subpoenas and a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against OpenAI and its founder, Sam Altman. In that case, the attorney general’s office contends the company and its ChatGPT bot knowingly put users at risk, alleging the application is aiding in mass shootings and even egging on suicides. OpenAI is fighting the lawsuit and defends its user protection policies.

Kimberly Leonard reported from Miami, and Andrew Atterbury reported from Tallahassee, Florida.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories