There is a reasonable cause for concern about the rapid and largely unregulated development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past few years.
The introduction of large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which launched the ‘AI boom’ in 2020, has opened the doors to an unprecedented number of consequences. From privacy concerns to dire social and economic ramifications, there is no doubt that we must seriously take a look at regulating the untethered expansion of AI.
The federal government is deeply unprepared to address the concerns of Americans and the future of our economy. To that point, the Trump administration has bolstered the AI industry by taking a pro-AI approach since taking office last year. The White House recently called on Congress to pass legislation to override state-level regulations on AI, a move that would likely be widely supported among tech giants. Companies like OpenAI and Google have been raising the alarm about restrictive state measures, fearful that it could “slow down” innovation.
Tech giants have poured millions of dollars into the upcoming midterm elections, aiming to boost candidates aligned with their interests in the proxy war over AI regulation. Super PACs like ‘Leading The Future’ seek to support pro-AI candidates who align with the support of adopting uniform federal AI regulations, rather than letting states lead the way; the group was formed by the president of OpenAI and a co-founder of Palantir. Anthropic, however, has moved to support candidates who favor AI safety regulations through a newly launched super PAC, ‘Public First Action.’ According to a statement by the company, the super PAC will “support public education about AI, promote safeguards, and ensure America leads the AI race.” Like Leading the Future, Public First Action is also backing a slew of bipartisan candidates up and down the ballot.
Still, Congress has largely ignored any consideration of imposing much needed guardrails on the industry. But as Trump pushes Republicans to strip states of their regulatory power to clear the way for AI’s expansion, who is leading the charge to rein in the tech giants?
Late last month, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), introduced the ‘Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act’ which would impose a federal pause on the construction of new data centers, the warehouses that power AI, until reasonable safeguards are enacted to protect the general public from the impacts of these models. This would be an important first step to thoroughly evaluate how AI works, the positive and negative impacts that are attached to it, and where to go from here on out. Given the rate of development we’re witnessing in the industry, we must delve deeper and enact strong guardrails that protect consumers, workers, students, and children from the negative effects of using these unregulated technologies. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s legislation is just one way to accomplish this, and their ideas aren’t unfamiliar to many.
So far, a slew of communities in a handful of states across the country have put a stop to or delayed proposed data centers in their backyards. As ‘Big Tech’ rushes to build these centers across the country to keep up with the overwhelming demand and needs to support their AI models, Americans are growing more skeptical of such projects due to environmental and economic concerns. And the research backs that skepticism, electricity bills are expected to rise sharply with the expansion of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Amazon’s data centers and their ballooning multi-billion dollar investment in these projects.
OpenAI’s new data center development in Abilene, Texas, is set to consume a whopping 1.2 gigawatts of power upon completion later this year, which is the equivalent of powering nearly 1 million homes, according to Bloomberg. In all, electricity consumption is projected to skyrocket from 183 terawatts (4% of total energy consumption) to a staggering 426 terawatts (12% of total energy consumption) by 2030 at the current pace of data center development.
With local communities and states across the country growing more wary of AI and the data centers that power it, it doesn’t seem radical to push for a federal moratorium, but we must do so in a way that will not allow the United States to fall behind in technological innovation. Senator Sanders’s and Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal do just that.
We need federal regulators, including Congress, to catch up with the pace of development. In doing so, it is critical that we center our regulations on strengthening worker protections and ensure we retain, not eliminate, jobs. We need an ‘AI Bill of Rights’ so that consumers and all Americans can have control over their data, the information they share with companies, and can finally put a stop to data brokers. Finally, we must ensure that Americans, including children, are able to use technologies that are safe by imposing a ban on uncanny deepfakes and AI-generated content that mimics individuals and public figures through audio and visual means.
AI has transformed our economy and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but we must seriously consider who should control it. We cannot allow the tech oligarchs to have it all.
The Zeitgeist aims to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
