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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026

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"We will create super-intelligence, and then the thing magically becomes alive just like us, so just like us it will have goals and aims of its own, and we have to make sure it is well-instructed in How To Be Nice Liberal and then it can take care of us like pampered pedigree cats as it colonises the known universe".

How about "we need to make sure the thing doesn't help people develop cyber weapons or biological weapons?"

I would be very glad if it were "we need to make sure this doesn't help people develop cyber or biological weapons", but that has flip-all to do with 'AI - does it have qualia?' and more to do with "who can access this thing, what regulations are in place, and what legal fights are we going to have over government demanding AI companies allow the likes of NSA access what they're doing versus people screaming this is fascist dictatorship?"

I would be very glad if it were "we need to make sure this doesn't help people develop cyber or biological weapons",

Oh, you are in luck! Amodei:

Models above a threshold of compute should undergo mandatory testing by a qualified third party for their level of risk in four specific areas: cybersecurity, biological weapons, loss of control of AI systems, and automated R&D that could accelerate these other risks.

AI companies that develop advanced AI models must have strong security standards that protect their model weights, should conduct regular red teaming and penetration testing, and should work with the government to defend against major threat actors.

Safety incidents in the four critical areas must be reported promptly.

Hopefully that clears things up.

That just means "we need to make sure the thing helps my group develop weapons, and no other".