# Beware the ‘effective altruists’, ‘old-fashioned’ way to tame AI and other commentary > Source: > Published: 2026-09-16 23:23:34+00:00 ## **Tech exec: Beware the ‘Effective Altruists’** “Effective Altruism is the unseen force driving AI safety discourse” as “EA crowd is trying to restrict your access to the most important technology of the 21st century,” [fumes Shyam Sankar at The Free Press](https://www.thefp.com/p/dangerous-ideology-effective-altruism-artificial-intelligence?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics). “EA is a utilitarian philosophy” that “leads in strange directions,” “obsessed with quantifying existential risk”; it “claims rationality and precision,” but “delivers neither” — as, e.g., “a human life can become a rounding error in somebody else’s calculation of the greater good.” These “doomsayers are the Leninist vanguard of the algorithmic age,” writing a recipe for “despair and failure.” No! AI “is underwriting the next 250 years of American greatness,” so “we should insist on the freedom to build it ourselves.” ## **Legal beat: ‘Old-Fashioned’ Way To Tame AI** A “better approach to AI safety” than a bureaucracy of regulators “runs through the old-fashioned legal system,” [contends Judge Glock at City Journal](https://www.city-journal.org/article/ai-safety-lawsuits-tort-legal-claims). Indeed, “legal claims for damages” against a company “may provide the best mechanism to prevent the dangers of AI while preserving its advantages.” While “the competitive play of the market forces companies to treat their customers well,” lawsuits have historically served to make businesses pay for “dangers” they create for “non-customers,” obliging them to “game out dangerous scenarios and prevent them.” Bureaucracies “will never have as much insight” or “incentive” to prevent harm as the labs themselves. They’d just “orient the companies to the demands of a small, unrepresentative group.” Far better to let “lawsuits punish bad behavior.” ## **Energy beat: Make Data Centers Pay Own Way** “Gas bills are expected to jump in Pennsylvania and other states because ratepayers cover the costs when utilities build new power plants and install pipes and other equipment” to generate “the power that data centers” need, [notes RealClear Investigations’ Oliver Lee Bateman](https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/09/15/natural_gas_is_cheap__why_is_your_bill_so_high_1206100.html). Yet one “obvious solution to rising rates for consumers” is to require these “developers to provide their own power.” Since “Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and other data center companies” have vowed “to protect consumers from price increases tied to their energy needs,” regulators can mandate running “a separate auction for their own power.” Ex-Rep. Conor Lamb agrees that the onus should be on “companies to power their data centers,” not on consumers to pay. ## **Conservative: Sydney Triggers the Left — Again** Behind the fury over Sydney Sweeney’s ads gambling app Novig, [argues USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/09/16/sydney-sweeney-sports-ad-backlash/91760569007/), is “the overreaction to anything Sweeney touches,” rooted in “her being a registered Republican,” as the American Eagle ad kerfuffle left her “blacklisted” by “progressives, especially the Hollywood crowd.” Female athletes complain Sweeney is “trivializing women’s sports by sexualizing them,” but “she’s not an athlete” — “she’s advertising a product to people who like sports,” period. And: “I don’t recall hearing the same uproar every year when Sports Illustrated releases its swimsuit edition,” which “features models, actresses and, yes, even female athletes in various states of undress.” In fact, Sweeney “is very private about her personal politics,” just “trying to live her best life and make the most of her 20s” while they last. “Let’s not stand in her way.” ## **Culture critic: Standing Up to Antisemites** Wanting no one inciting antisemitism at a venue he owns, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft pressed Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore as his opener after the rapper repeatedly slammed Jews onstage, [cheers Commentary’s Seth Mandel](https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-stiffening-spines-of-american-jews/). After all, “were Macklemore’s dream” of Israel’s destruction “to come true,” millions of Jews “would be murdered” and “banished from their homes.” The artist pretends he was fired for supporting Palestinians, yet this time the Jewish figures involved didn’t back off as Jewish advocates usually do: Kraft argued that standing up for Palestinians and against “Hamas, antisemitism and hate” shouldn’t be “mutually exclusive.” Mandel’s advice for Jews: Don’t “let self-pitying anti-Semites lie.” Speak up! “Mideast discourse desperately needs more truth and more spine.” *— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board*