What will the candidates say about AI in tonight’s debate?
AI policy *should* be front and center
Sure, there will be comments on immigration, foreign policy, and inflation; insults will be hurled. Both candidates will probably stumble at some point; evasions are guaranteed.
But what you should really be watching for are the candidate’s comments on AI, which after all, is likely to change the world in coming years, affecting virtually every aspect of society, from employment to education to healthcare to national defense.
You should be watching to see what the candidates plan to do about fraud and disinformation, as AI contributes to escalation in both. And how the candidates plan to deal with a likely rise in market manipulation using AI-generated misinformation. And what they plan to do about covert racism in AI.
And you should be watching to see what they plan to do about the growing problem of nonconsensual deep fake porn, and especially how that might affect the already vulnerable population of teenage girls, who have been hard by social media.
§
Should be.
§
In an ideal world, both candidates would come clean on their policies around AI, and we should come away with a clear understanding of their understanding of our future. In an ideal world, moderators would demand such clarity.
In the actual world, I will be surprised if either candidate says much of anything about AI at all; even more surprised if either candidate makes any commitments as to how to mitigate any of AI’s harms.
With so much at stake, a total neglect of AI policy would be deeply unfortunate. Our long-term future may actually be shaped more by AI policy than tariffs.
§
All too often in the past, we have given a free pass to candidates who have proceeded to do too little on technological questions about which they thought about too little and too late.
It would be a really good time to demand better. If we don’t, future generations may regret it.
And in the end it will be our fault. Because the candidates – in the House, the Senate, and for President – certainly aren’t going to bother to talk about AI policy if we don’t let them know that it matters, to all of us.
Gary Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book Taming Silicon Valley, out next week, which is about what we as citizens should demand in terms of AI policy, and why we should demand it.
I asked Anthropic's Claude to discuss AI policy in the style of Donald Trump: "Folks, we're gonna have the best AI, believe me. It's gonna be so smart, your head will spin. But we gotta be careful, because some very bad people, some very nasty people, they want to use AI against us. Not good! I know more about AI than anybody. The fake news media, they say "Oh, Trump doesn't understand technology." Wrong! I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things. Our AI is going to be so powerful, so incredible. China and Russia, they're trying to catch up, but they can't do it folks. We're going to win the AI race so much, you may even get tired of winning. But let me tell you, we need to put America First in AI. No more of these terrible deals where other countries steal our technology. We're going to have great AI jobs, the best AI jobs. Coal miners? They're going to be coding robots. It's going to be beautiful. And security? Forget about it. Our AI is going to be like a giant wall, protecting us from all the bad hombres trying to hack us. It's going to be a cyber wall, and guess what? The robots are going to pay for it! So remember, when it comes to AI, it's very simple: Make America's Algorithms Great Again! Thank you, thank you very much."
My guess is that they won't mention AI, because they know nothing of any substance about it. And that would be true pretty much of the entire Congress.