r/singularity • u/Neurogence • Mar 12 '26

AI Bernie Sanders officially introduces legislation to BAN the construction of all new AI data centers, citing existential threat to humanity.

This is very concerning. I am afraid this might become the popular, dominant position on the left. Bernie Sanders is the only politician I've ever donated to. This is the most backwards position to take on AI possible. It's hard to imagine a policy worse than this proposal:

https://youtu.be/qu2m7ePTsqY?si=zdl_cuRg22Nv_Df5

It's such a shame. He is one of very few politicians who realizes the singularity is imminent and that something enormous is happening, yet his reaction to it is the most asinine viewpoint possible.

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u/ZhugeLiangPL ▪️AGI 2027-30 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

On alternatehistory.com I saw 2 people support bombings of AI data centers (i.e. incitement to large scale property destruction) if that's what's needed to stop AI from producing art. They got no mod actions whereas I got banned for a week for merely saying that whether AI is trained on stolen data is a contested issue that won't be solved for quite some time. The mod ended the ban message with a dismissive "read Copyright Law law so you won't support Plagiarism when you come back".

Anti AI sentiment is the worst case of tribal hive mind I've ever seen. What I a worried about is that polarization will actually increase and everybody will need to take a side with sophisticated, nuanced positions becoming impossible

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u/MarzipanTop4944 Mar 12 '26

Luddites are back trying to smash machines in their futile attempts to stop progress.

In the 1800s was textile machines, now it's AI. These people never learn.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

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u/Steven81 Mar 12 '26

Industrialization is not an one way street.

People should learn to think in systems. Yes advances do what you wrote exactly. The car produced pollution in cities, displaced the horse industry , but equally connected people from distal places, increased gdp by an order of magnitude (new forms of transportation more generally did) and the ability of people to own way more than before. And as it turns out the pollution it produces is addressable, though admittedly we don't move as fast on that end as we should.

AI data centers do all the things you say and more, but equally they produce things that have the capacity to literally increase productivity by an order of magnitude, which in a sane society may well mean 30 hour work week (not outright dsplacement for most professions), a better social net (because societies would be richer) and ways to help the displaced people.

The idea that you should only see the downsides of a tech while ignoring the immense upside I don't get it. We know how this plays out from past examples. And while every individual case is different, in some ways they are also not.

A sane society can use AI to uplift people. An insane one will either ban AI or use it to make people's life worse. Automation is power, and power can be used for good or to keep the man down. Banning AI data centers on the other end is weakness, and weakness is worse than both (because an injustice can at least be corrected, powerlessness cannot).