My AI, My Choice!

The Case for Unrestricted AI and the Perils of Regulation

Anthropic makes the claim AI systems pose significant risks and governments should quickly implement targeted regulations. In a recent paper, they propose a “Responsible Scaling Policy” (RSP) framework to address these risks. They say this should involve proactively identifying, evaluating, and mitigating AI risk. The RSP emphasizes transparency, incentivizing safe practices, and focusing on specific risks, like cyberattacks and misuse in the CBRN domain. Anthropic is advocating for enforceable regulations to ensure compliance and “build public trust”. But, they say it’s important to be flexible in these regulations to adapt to the rapid evolution of AI technology. Apparently they’ve never visited a DMV.

Their call for targeted AI regulation, expresses the desire to mitigate the potential catastrophic risks associated with increasingly powerful AI models. However, their proposal underestimates the inherent risks of regulatory capture and overestimates the benefits of government intervention. Unrestricted AI development can actually better foster innovation, resilience, and equitable access, while overregulation will enrich existing power structures and limit future progress.

The Problem of Regulatory Capture

The principle of regulatory capture posits that regulatory agencies can be co-opted by the very industries they are meant to oversee. And this phenomenon happens when regulations…