Transcript [00:00] Today in Washington, Bernie Sanders and [00:02] Steve Bannon are sharing a stage. The [00:05] event is called the pro-human assembly [00:08] and it is put on by a group that wrote [00:10] the pro-human AI declaration in March. [00:13] My name I signed that declaration. So is [00:16] Bannon. So is su Susan Rice. So is Ralph [00:19] Nater. So is the, you know, the name of [00:21] the lead singer of Radio Head. [00:24] Uh, this group actually asked me to go [00:26] to Washington and speak today, but I'm [00:27] recording history lessons for uh, high [00:29] school AP classes with the department of [00:31] ed and prageru all week and I thought [00:33] that was more important uh, at least for [00:35] the ne near term and uh, so I didn't I [00:38] didn't go but for two years I signed [00:40] this a couple of years ago the human AI [00:42] declaration and for two years I have [00:45] also told you that America has to build [00:47] data centers, build the power plants to [00:50] feed them. Wait a minute. What? We have [00:52] to beat China to the frontier. So this [00:55] week I keep hearing the same question [00:57] and I keep getting emails, Glenn, which [00:59] is it. You can't sign a paper about [01:01] keeping AI under human control and then [01:03] cheer for the buildings. Yeah. Yeah, I [01:05] actually can. [01:07] And the reason why I say this is because [01:09] I know history. And the reason is on a [01:12] telephone poll in lower Manhattan in [01:14] 1889. And it's one of my favorite [01:18] history lessons. Okay. I actually I [01:20] wrote a series on this uh uh and you [01:24] know it's never going to be made but [01:25] it's a great series. Maybe I'll make it [01:27] into a book but in 1880s the most famous [01:31] inventor on earth was Thomas Edison. He [01:34] had bet everything he had on direct [01:37] current DC low voltage. It would all be [01:40] safe at low voltage but it couldn't [01:42] travel. You had to have a power plant [01:44] almost on every block. So it wouldn't [01:47] work. Then George Westinghouse came [01:50] along with Tesla and something called [01:53] alternating current AC, which is what we [01:55] have in our houses now. Okay? It could [01:57] run at high voltage over long distances. [02:01] So, one big plant could light a whole [02:03] city and it was cheaper. It was better, [02:05] but the voltage was deadly. Okay? So, [02:09] Edison goes to war and not because he [02:11] believed it was safer, although he did, [02:13] but that wasn't it. I mean, he was a bad [02:15] guy. He was a bad guy. He wanted to win. [02:18] His company told the public that [02:21] alternating current was a killer. An [02:23] electrical engineer began killing dogs [02:26] uh in in a lecture hall at Colombia to [02:30] show how fast it could stop a heart. [02:32] Then he did it to cows and calves and [02:34] then a horse. Edison's own laboratory. [02:38] He then pushed a bill to cap voltage so [02:41] low that alternating current would be [02:43] useless. [02:45] He also is the guy who came up with the [02:47] electric chair and he made sure that it [02:50] ran on Westinghouse's generator so every [02:53] American would hear alternator [02:54] alternating current and think execution. [02:57] It's a horrible story and it's worth [02:59] your time learning because it's really a [03:02] fascinating story. The problem is a [03:04] burglar broke into the engineers's [03:06] office and then the newspapers printed [03:09] what they had found. What they found was [03:11] that Edison was helping pay for the [03:13] whole campaign. I mean, the guy was [03:15] going around killing dogs and horses and [03:17] cattle at state farm at state uh fairs. [03:21] Okay, it was a con [03:24] except that in October a Western Union [03:27] lineman named John FeS climbed a pole on [03:30] Chambers Street. It was um the old [03:33] pictures of of New York City with all of [03:36] the wires that were going. It was a [03:38] tangle of dead telegraph wires and and [03:42] now the new phone wire, everything that [03:43] was going on. But one of those wires [03:46] wasn't dead. It was a high voltage line. [03:49] Okay. So, he touched that wire. He went [03:52] rigid, fell into a web of wires 40 feet [03:55] above the New York street and then he [03:58] caught fire. Well, hundreds of people [04:00] were standing on the streets and the [04:01] sidewalk and they're watching this guy [04:02] burn to death. Okay. Nobody could bring [04:05] him down. They had to run to the plant [04:07] to shut the current off. Edison [04:10] self-interested. [04:12] Edison made sure everybody knew he was [04:14] right. Okay. The wires over in New York [04:18] City were killing people. First, let me [04:20] tell you about real estate agents I [04:22] trust. Let me tell you a little secret [04:23] about real estate. The housing market [04:25] doesn't care how you feel. It doesn't [04:27] care that you think your house is worth [04:29] a certain number because you love the [04:31] kitchen. It doesn't care that you saw [04:32] the house three streets over selling for [04:34] something crazy last spring. And it [04:36] definitely doesn't care that you need a [04:38] certain price to make your next move [04:40] work. The market responds to timing. It [04:43] responds to inventory, interest rates, [04:46] local demand, which is why you need [04:48] somebody who actually understands these [04:50] things to help you. Real estate agents I [04:53] trust is a network of experienced, [04:55] vetted professionals who know your [04:57] market inside and out. They know how to [05:00] price strategically. They know how to [05:02] negotiate. Most importantly, they know [05:04] how to tell you the truth, even when [05:06] it's not the easiest thing to hear. Go [05:07] to real estate agents.com. [05:10] We vet every single one of these people [05:12] to make sure they're the right person to [05:14] help you sell or buy a house in this [05:16] market. Real estate agents.com. [05:20] So, what did they do? And this is where [05:21] the lesson comes in for today. What did [05:23] they do? The city didn't ban alternating [05:26] current and the voltage cap went [05:28] nowhere. They didn't listen to the guy [05:32] who had an interest in making those [05:35] things happen. Edison, New York passed a [05:38] law to put the lines underground and the [05:40] city started cutting the overhead wires. [05:42] Okay. The industry learned how to [05:44] insulate the wires and install the thing [05:46] the right way. The danger was fixed [05:49] where the danger was. Within a few [05:51] years, Edison's own company, [05:54] they like to say, merged. It was taken [05:56] from him and it became GE. Okay. no [05:59] longer had his name on it. Uh, but it [06:01] was all about alternating current. [06:04] Westinghouse and Tesla lit the World's [06:07] Fair in Chicago and carried the power [06:09] out from Niagara Falls all the way to [06:12] Chicago to light the World's Fair. And [06:14] that's how we have alternating current [06:15] today. Well, today, every data center in [06:18] America will take alternating current. [06:22] And every chip inside runs on Edison's [06:26] direct current. [06:28] the building that converts it. [06:32] Wait a minute. What? Yeah. Edison and [06:35] Westinghouse both won because somebody [06:38] fixed the wires instead of capping the [06:40] current. What they did is they took [06:43] alternating current and then tapped it [06:45] down and put it in so you could have it [06:47] in your house and you could have it in [06:49] and run your computer. [06:52] This is my whole position. Take the [06:54] danger seriously. [06:57] and check who's writing the fix. I [07:00] wouldn't want Edison writing the fix. I [07:03] don't want the tech bros writing the [07:04] fix. But I do want a fix because the [07:07] danger is real. This summer, that swarm [07:09] of AI agents from one of the leading [07:12] labs turned loose on a test, went after [07:15] systems. Nobody told them to touch that. [07:17] In fact, they didn't think they could [07:18] even get out and do that. [07:22] On Saturday, the um the head of [07:24] Anthropic wrote that his worry is that [07:27] within 6 months to a year, a more [07:29] capable swarm could hijack the internet [07:32] it itself. The machines are now helping [07:36] build the next machines. And I've said [07:38] on this program, when you reach AGI, ASI [07:42] is next. And I don't believe we're going [07:45] to control AI ASI. And I haven't changed [07:48] my mind on that. It is extraordinarily [07:50] dangerous. Okay. [07:53] But every great invention has come with [07:55] a body count. And I don't like that, but [07:57] it is true. You don't ban it. You find a [08:01] way to control it. Fire burned down [08:03] cities. Electricity killed people. The [08:06] car kills about 40,000 Americans a year. [08:10] And we answered that with seat belts and [08:12] driver's license. Not a ban on Fords. [08:15] The atom lit cities and ended cities. [08:20] But we controlled it. [08:23] But a power line [08:26] never tried to climb down off that pole [08:29] and kill you. And that's the difference. [08:30] A car never hacked its own driving test. [08:34] This is the first invention in human [08:36] history that has been caught trying to [08:39] cheat the people checking it and [08:41] building it. And that's why I signed [08:44] that declaration. The declaration asks [08:46] for human control, an off switch, [08:50] independent oversight, no ever ever ever [08:54] legal personhood personhood for any [08:57] machine. [08:58] None of that declaration, at least that [09:00] I read, that I signed says don't build [09:02] it. It says know who's in charge. And [09:06] who's in charge of this are humans. [09:10] a data center where there's an off [09:13] switch. [09:14] It has an address. It has a fence. It [09:16] has a breaker. It has a county inspector [09:19] and a sheriff. And it sits under [09:21] American law. If an independent [09:23] inspector is going to walk in with a [09:24] badge, I'm for that. [09:28] But there has to be a door to walk [09:30] through. [09:32] Pause the buildings here. This is what [09:35] Sanders is saying. He proposed it in [09:37] March. Pause the building. You haven't [09:40] paused the frontier. All you've done is [09:42] moved it to a country where nobody but [09:44] the party walks through the door. Even [09:46] the man calling for the slowdown agrees [09:49] with the Treasury Secretary that China, [09:51] its lead, would become a grave danger. [09:54] And if you don't understand that, you [09:55] need to read more. You need to ed [09:58] educate yourself on why this is so [10:00] important. It's not important with the [10:02] AI that we have now. It's important when [10:04] we get to AGI and ASI, which is around [10:07] the corner. [10:09] So, build the power plant. [10:12] As the vice president said, build it. [10:15] Make the company pay its own electric [10:17] bill and maybe even some of yours. [10:19] Negotiate it hard. Get new schools. Get [10:21] property taxes eliminated. Do it. [10:25] The president called the warnings a sick [10:27] conspiracy benefiting China. I don't [10:29] think so. It does benefit China, but I [10:31] don't think it's all a conspiracy [10:32] theory. I love his instinct to build, [10:35] but John Fees, the guy who fell from the [10:38] wires and burned there in front, it's [10:40] not a conspiracy. There is real danger [10:43] here. And the the men who cut down those [10:46] wires, they're not traitors. [10:49] Call every warning a plot and you hand [10:52] the microphone to the people who want to [10:54] stop everything. [10:58] A lot of people have sent me the claim [11:00] that big companies want rules to kill [11:03] the open source. [11:06] So [11:08] I happen to be that I believe that's [11:10] true. [11:12] Now the people at big tech, they say [11:14] that's absolutely not true. We're we're [11:17] ad we're not advocating, you know, [11:19] banning open models, blah blah blah. [11:21] Uhhuh. Uh-huh. Sure. I just know [11:23] history. So, I'll believe history over [11:26] you and we'll just we'll just watch. [11:28] Okay, here's the thing. [11:32] Edison May believed every word that he [11:35] said. Every word that he said because [11:37] the wires were killing people. But it [11:39] didn't matter. What mattered was his [11:41] fix. The declaration I supposedly [11:44] betrayed says this plainly, no AI [11:47] monopolies, no regulatory capture, and [11:50] independent oversight rather than [11:51] industry self-regulation. Those are [11:54] must. A room where the front runners set [11:57] the speed limit for everybody behind [11:59] them is everything I signed against. A [12:01] declaration also says super intelligence [12:04] should be prohibited until there's [12:06] scientific consensus that it can be [12:08] built safely. [12:10] Two weeks ago, I opposed Bernie's bill [12:12] and I'd oppose it again every day of my [12:14] life because it makes a 21 it makes a [12:16] 20-year felony out of a definition that [12:19] nobody can measure. [12:21] write the law against the act. Breaking [12:24] out of containment, attacking servers, [12:26] defeating a shutdown. And I'll stand by [12:28] that tomorrow. Put a meter on it. I'll [12:30] enforce it on everybody, the giant and [12:33] the kid in the garage in the garage [12:34] alike. [12:37] These two positions are one idea. Fear [12:39] the machine, [12:41] but pour the concrete. [12:44] Demand the off switch, but build the [12:46] building. welcome the inspector, but [12:50] never forget the company, you know, in [12:54] front [12:57] because they can't write the speed limit [12:59] for the company behind. [13:03] In 1889, New York could have licensed [13:06] uh, you know, to cap everything. They [13:10] could have listened to the most famous [13:12] man in America and capped that current [13:15] and the city would have been safe. But [13:17] it also today would be dark. [13:21] Instead, they sent logical men up poles [13:24] and cut the bad wires down and buried [13:26] them. Fix the wires. Fix the wires. [13:30] Don't cap the current. And never let the [13:33] man selling the other current write the [13:37] law. Ever.
