Gavin Newsom’s executive order calling for a “kill switch” for AI is nothing new. It recycles an old idea from more than 15 years ago, when “the internet” was still big and scary to many people.
Back then, several senators proposed legislation to allow the president to flip a “kill switch” to disrupt the Internet.
The idea took hold in the public imagination; it even featured in an episode of “South Park,” where Kyle “unplugs” the Internet.
But the bill never passed, because no one could figure out how it would work, legally or technically — and nothing has changed.
Newsom suggests a “third party” will control the “kill switch”: Who would that be?
Who would appoint the “third party”? Who would control it?
And wouldn’t a “kill switch” represent a new threat?
Wouldn’t something more powerful than all the AI companies just be something new to fear?
And what of the implications for free speech? For data security?
When someone flips the “kill switch,” how much work would be destroyed? How many businesses would lose their products?
None of this seems particularly well thought-out. It’s just designed to grab public attention.
Newsom’s “solution” isn’t even meaningfully possible: We’re talking about self-programming AIs, which could just delete any software “switch,” and jump to a different data center to evade a hardware one.
The only way the “kill switch” works is as a political ploy.
You can almost visualize it — a giant red wall switch, or perhaps a lever: something a hero would pull in an action movie as he or she leaps across the room, just in time to save the world from the evil Terminator robots.
That’s as cartoonish as “South Park,” but a hard image to forget.
Like it or not, every potential Democratic presidential primary candidate will have to figure out how to react to Newsom’s “kill switch” schtick
As will President Donald Trump.
The prez has been bullish on AI, in terms of both American leadership and national security. He’s right that we can’t afford to fall behind China.
But maybe he’s been a little tone-deaf when it comes to public anxiety about the new technology.
Newsom is taking that anxiety and exploiting it. Even the word “kill” conjures some terrifying confrontation.
It’s great persuasion. It’s also terrible policy.
The “kill switch” should be a wake-up call to the White House: Do a better job of selling the public on American AI dominance.
We can’t let “South Park” write the script.