Scoop: Coxon, Bernie and Bannon unite for "pro-human" AI
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Ex-Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon will join forces at an event on Tuesday to push for human-controlled AI.
Why it matters: An industry insider, the face of the progressive movement and a leading MAGA voice make for unlikely allies, in a sign of how AI is upending political norms.
Driving the news: The Future of Life Institute is organizing Tuesday's "Pro-Human Assembly." The nonprofit advocacy group is behind "The Pro-Human AI Declaration," which calls for protecting human agency, avoiding concentrations of power and holding companies accountable.
- Coxon, who worked for OpenAI and then Anthropic and quit the latter over safety fears, will give in-person remarks, Axios has learned.
- "The Oligarchs are finally being forced to admit they've lied from the beginning about the dangers of acceleration with zero guardrails — they've put the nation and mankind in jeopardy," Bannon told Axios in a statement.
The big picture: Some of AI's most powerful leaders over the weekend endorsed slowing the pace of development, amid alarming AI-driven cybersecurity breaches and stark concerns about where the technology is headed.
- Beyond viral warnings about AI posing an existential threat, Americans are worried about its impacts on jobs, the environment, affordability, mental health and child safety.
- Some speakers on Tuesday are looking to zero in on that sentiment in the midterms and future elections, where AI could energize the electorate and sway undecided voters.
What they're saying: "Elected officials need to say we are going to make safety as important as innovation," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, one of several labor leaders who will speak at the event, said in an interview.
- "That is what I'm hoping the Democratic politicians say. And the more they say it, and the more they're trusted, the more I think they will turn the tide not only in the election — but then they have to do something about it."
- Weingarten pointed to a first-of-its-kind agreement between teachers' unions and Microsoft to protect students' data from being used to train AI and provide educators transparency about the tech as the type of solutions springing up amid congressional inaction.
Megan Garcia, a mother whose son died by suicide after interacting with a chatbot, said she hopes Democrats and Republicans "realize this is a central issue going into the midterms" and that voters who are "flabbergasted" at inaction around social media will be looking at how candidates lean on AI.
- Garcia, who will speak at the event, is advocating for congressional action to protect kids against social media as well as AI harms.
- "In my mind, and in the minds of parents of the social media victims, we don't trade lives because we're not going to pass a good version of the Kids Online Safety Act for a bad AI law," she said in an interview.
The intrigue: The event will showcase officials from across the political spectrum and span viewpoints from Hollywood to faith groups.
- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas), and New York Assemblymember Alex Bores, who lost a closely watched congressional primary centered on AI safety, will speak.
- Actors Ashley Judd and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will also speak, as will San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and the National Association of Evangelicals' Walter Kim.
The bottom line: AI is creating unusual political alliances, but whether they translate into public policy is far from settled.
