AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet • Hacker News Board

Re: AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet

#21

Post by jazz3k » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

lacy_tinpot wrote: post #15

Avicebron wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The basic problem that left leaning politics are refusing to address is that the above were radical propositions. Schools, libraries, social housing, public transit, were all things that were fundamentally subversive.." Subversive to what? A winner-take-all, might-makes-right feudal mindset?

It was subversive to the ruling class, and the politics of that time. Schools for example made books accessible to everyone, where only 'elites' had access to them before. Thereby leveling the playing field. A left leaning politics of today might actually ask for more compute or intelligence to be accessible to all. Nationalizing or demanding a democratized project for frontier level intelligence that's easily access…

"Schools for example made books accessible to everyone, where only 'elites' had access to them before"

This had more to do with giving people knowledge and was very inexpensive. We now have the Internet, which allows for the masses to meet, protest, and be subversive.

The only thing threatening our freedoms is Left-leaning politics that have already taken over countries like the UK. I've been following left-leaning politics my whole life. It always starts out wanting freedoms for all. When they actually get power, step 1 is finding ways to censor dissenting viewpoints.

"A left leaning politics of today might actually ask for more compute or intelligence to be accessible to all."

This involves taking from the people that are providing these resources and giving it to the masses, by force (called the government). I don't really see how they are the same.

"This would be in direct competition with frontier labs that are all closed source and heavily funded. It would give access to people otherwise gated due to monetary reasons. And further give individual American an opportunity to participate in a coming social/technological transformation."

I can get access to the near-latest LLMs for less than $100/month. Everyone I know is already using some form of LLM at work or has access to it. I'm unsure what your proposal will solve, when it's already so accessible.

A very small percentage of people have the knowledge or desire to use agentic AI.

This sounds like a solution in need of a problem.

Re: AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet

#22

Post by SiempreViernes » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 11:17 PM UTC

bpodgursky wrote: post #7

The federal government believes that the US will be locked out of the future forever if we are not first, or at least at parity, on AI with adversaries. They believe it is not a normal technology, but a singularly important one which will define national capacity. The federal government believes that if China achieves AI dominance and we are not competitive on either the industrial or cognitive stacks, the people and…

I prefer to think that all compute Open AI has access too was actually given to Altman by Santa because he was once a good boy. "You can disbelieve it, but that is a perfectly valid thesis."

Do you see how putting "it's a perfectly valid thesis" at the end of any completely unsupported claim doesn't actually make it any more credible?

Re: AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet

#23

Post by SiempreViernes » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 11:21 PM UTC

bpodgursky wrote: post #17

goatlover wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a narrative framing from the tech companies who started and continue the AI race. The current administration is following this framing because the tech billionaires helped them get elected, so they are getting their pay back. It's crony capitalism.

I do not work at an AI company. If you gave me a magic button, I would press it to halt all frontier AI development globally. But, I do not have that button, and I believe the thesis that for the US to thrive, or even survive, we have to win at AI. So, until we get a multinational pact to pause AI (which I would support), it needs to be all gas, all the time.

> So, until we get a multinational pact to pause AI (which I would support), it needs to be all gas, all the time.

In other words "If others give me exactly what I want, without me making any effort for it, I will stop doing this thing I regret having to do". Someone might object that it's possible, achievable, and useful to produce partial success on the road to a comprehensive solution. Still others think it's best to not have a ceasefire while you negotiate the peace.

Re: AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet

#24

Post by lacy_tinpot » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 11:37 PM UTC

impossiblefork wrote: post #19

lacy_tinpot wrote: post #5

"We believe that AI’s emergence shows the potential for state capacity to be oriented toward a different mission that centers the ambitious creation of socially useful green infrastructure like clean energy, healthy schools, libraries, social housing, and public transit." The basic problem that left leaning politics are refusing to address is that the above were radical propositions. Schools, libraries, social housin…

Left-leaning politics is not at all like early 1900eds left-leaning politics. Left-leaning politics has moved to very mild, not-even-social-democracy policies, taxation of wage income, a decreased focus on capital owners. Left-leaning politics has thus been transformed beyond belief and has very little to do with what it used to. Most politicians have no idea about physical reality, which is the ultimate source of te…

"Left-liberals don't exist"

This is straight out of the 19th and 20th century. Like old-socialist rhetoric (emphasis on the old). Even the revolutionary politics is basically a conservative regurgitation of the 19th and 20th century. Like this is de facto how the socialists and communists have always thought about the liberals and even enlightenment era thinkers, accusing the entire project of fascism, Western European imperialism, and so on.

It's almost like a caricature of the 19th and 20th century at this point.

There is no new politics. No new frontiers. Nothing new. Even as the entire world has completely changed, and the ground completely shifted.

Re: AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet

#25

Post by bpodgursky » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:17 AM UTC

SiempreViernes wrote: post #23

bpodgursky wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not work at an AI company. If you gave me a magic button, I would press it to halt all frontier AI development globally. But, I do not have that button, and I believe the thesis that for the US to thrive, or even survive, we have to win at AI. So, until we get a multinational pact to pause AI (which I would support), it needs to be all gas, all the time.

> So, until we get a multinational pact to pause AI (which I would support), it needs to be all gas, all the time. In other words "If others give me exactly what I want, without me making any effort for it, I will stop doing this thing I regret having to do". Someone might object that it's possible, achievable, and useful to produce partial success on the road to a comprehensive solution. Still others think it's best…

Do you think the US could have negotiated the New START treaty to get Russia to reduce their nuclear arms stockpile, if the US did not have parity in nukes?

Unilateral ceasefires while your opponents are at full throttle are the dumbest imaginable response.

Re: AI First: How the Federal Government Is Prioritizing AI over People and Planet

#26

Post by bpodgursky » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:17 AM UTC

SiempreViernes wrote: post #22

bpodgursky wrote: post #7

The federal government believes that the US will be locked out of the future forever if we are not first, or at least at parity, on AI with adversaries. They believe it is not a normal technology, but a singularly important one which will define national capacity. The federal government believes that if China achieves AI dominance and we are not competitive on either the industrial or cognitive stacks, the people and…

I prefer to think that all compute Open AI has access too was actually given to Altman by Santa because he was once a good boy. "You can disbelieve it, but that is a perfectly valid thesis." Do you see how putting "it's a perfectly valid thesis" at the end of any completely unsupported claim doesn't actually make it any more credible?

Do you have a brain tumor or something? I genuinely don't understand what point you are trying to make.