When it Comes to AI, Let's Move Fast and Fix Things

Today, the White House was proud to announce it has received "voluntary commitments" from tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI to support forthcoming regulation on artificial intelligence. At first blush, it's a reassuring gesture from tech companies who hold "human extinction" in the palm of their hands, but Americans should take their lip service with a grain of salt. More than a decade after Mark Zuckerberg coined the mantra "move fast and break things," the public is finally realizing the serious negative effect that social media platforms have had on youth mental health, and the brokenness in our democracy and public health that Big Tech has left in its wake. Now, Big Tech wants to "launch and iterate" a new lab experiment on society writ large, this time with artificial intelligence. Leaders in the field agree that "smart regulation" is needed to avoid serious harm to humanity, but AI is already woven into the fabric of the mainstream's daily lives.