Michigan Democrat Abdul el Sayed, who’s running for the Senate this election cycle, voiced his support for an artificial intelligence kill switch on Tuesday as part of his new campaign platform concerning the advanced technology.
The announcement shows el Sayed is more closely aligning himself with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who recently introduced legislation to ban artificial superintelligence. El Sayed says he supports the bill, but the candidate notes his proposal goes further.
Where the two progressive Democrats differ is el Sayed’s open call for an AI kill switch that would let human developers shut down rogue models. The aspiring senator praised a bipartisan bill from Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), who would authorize the Department of Homeland Security to either slow down or shut down AI systems before they get out of hand.
“Developers must be able to slow, suspend, or shut down their most powerful systems, and cloud and data-center operators must cut access on a lawful order,” el Sayed said in a campaign statement outlining the main points of his “AI Under Control” policy proposal. “There must be regular drills to prove it works, allowing regulators to protect Americans from dangerous AI systems gone rogue.”
California is already working to create an AI kill switch for frontier AI models following an executive order signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and New York is actively considering the emergency method.
In Michigan, el Sayed is hammering home his anti-AI messaging as he prepares to face Trump-backed Republican Mike Rogers in three weeks for the general election.
The Democratic nominee attacked his opponent for dismissing the existential concerns surrounding the technology as “fearmongering” while holding up to $2.6 million in AI-related investments that stand to benefit from the development of more data centers. Though he initially supported policies to accelerate the data center boom, Rogers shifted his stance to endorse a one-year moratorium on construction for new data centers in Michigan.
“Donald Trump and his lackey Mike Rogers can’t be trusted to keep either Michigan or humanity safe from the existential dangers of unrestrained AI,” el Sayed said.
In his new AI platform, el Sayed reiterated his call for pausing all frontier AI development immediately until meaningful safety standards are in place. He also followed Sanders’s lead in favoring a complete ban on artificial superintelligence and the creation of a Cabinet-level AI agency, which are both included in the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act.
The legislation’s lead sponsors, Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), have endorsed el Sayed for the Senate.
EL SAYED CITES ANTHROPIC RESEARCHERS’ EXISTENTIAL WARNING IN CALL FOR AI PAUSE
Additionally, el Sayed backs a ban on recursive self-improvement, which allows AI models to train successor models. The candidate says this creates a “self-reinforcing doom loop that leads down the path of superintelligence.” There are other points in his plan that are supported by Democrats, including Sanders.
“The answer to what is stopping rogue AI agents from triggering a global nuclear crisis or deploying bioweapons cannot be the whims of a few billionaires in California,” el Sayed said. “Nor can anyone claim the technology isn’t there yet, because it is getting closer, and that is unacceptable. At an absolute minimum, I’m calling for a pause in AI frontier development. We need to put an end to any further AI development until we have guardrails in place that ensure all risks to human safety are eliminated.”
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
