Coming soon: New York City's hearing on AI risks (Marcus's prepared testimony)

Published hours before the hearing, the post gives Marcus's prepared testimony. He calls contemporary AI "like a bull in a china shop, powerful and impressive, but difficult to control". He cites tens of thousands of hacking incidents by general-purpose agents, deepfake propaganda and porn, and chatbots implicated in suicides. He doubts that human extinction is imminent but says the risks are serious and that the federal administration is unwilling to act. His core ask is "an FDA-like regulatory regime for AI" with independent pre-deployment review. He urges the Council "in the strongest possible terms" to pass the third-party validation bill, and asks for strong whistleblower protections, noting reports that OpenAI may have fired employees who were whistleblowing.

(short quotes only)

"What we need, above all else, is an FDA-like regulatory regime for AI, in which AI developers bring their software to independent review, much as drug manufacturers bring their new drugs to the FDA for a review." "In sum by protecting whistleblowers, and demanding independent validation of new AI models, New York City can help lead the way to a positive, rather than negative, AI future."