Go Bernie!

Someone in Congress shows a sign of life—just in the nick of time.

Yesterday in our symposium, Shawn Howard—of American Vets in Defense of Democracy renown—said that what he found most depressing about our conversation was his sense that people were losing faith in our institutions’ ability to address our problems.

I said that I’d lost faith, because manifestly, our institutions are incapable of addressing our problems. The example that immediately came to my mind was Congress’s failure to utter so much as a squeak of concern upon learning that—as the Washington Post puts it—”AI models are breaking out of their cages.”

Any competent government, I said—you can watch me saying this here—would be doing something about this.

I just saw this:

To my surprise, Bernie Sanders sounds like he understands the problem, fully grasps its gravity, and proposes to behave like a member of the United States Congress—that is, to do something about it.

“My colleagues and I”—might that mean that there are other members of Congress who likewise grasp the problem, grasp its gravity, and propose to behave like members of the United States Congress?

I’m willing to say I was wrong. If they force these insanely reckless companies to stop building machines they can’t control, I’ll take back every word. I’ll regain my faith in our institutions’ ability to deal with our problems.

This doesn’t mean I’ll vote for the DSA. But if Bernie does what he says here, he’ll earn his place in history.

I’ll never be able to prove it, but if he successfully mobilizes Congress to stop this, I reckon he’ll be in the company of Stanislav Petrov.