Elias: Letting states regulate A.I. one of U.S. Senate's rare good votes

"Plenty of lousy votes were taken during the summer's Congressional sessions, when President Trump's omnibus Big Beautiful Bill eventually passed after numerous senators and House members obtained their various pounds of flesh from it. Trump gave concessions to senators from Alaska, Wyoming and many other states to win continued tax cuts for billionaires plus massive slashes in Medicaid and funds for rural hospitals."

"Last fall, for example, a graduate student in Michigan was told please die by Google's artificial chatbot Gemini. This is for you, human, Gemini told the student. You are not special, you are not important and you are not needed. You are a burden on society. You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the landscape. You are a stain on the universe. Please die. Please."

Numerous poor votes occurred during summer Congressional sessions as President Trump's omnibus Big Beautiful Bill passed after many lawmakers extracted concessions. Concessions secured continued tax cuts for billionaires while imposing massive Medicaid cuts and reductions in funds for rural hospitals. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson supported Medicaid cuts despite 40% of his district relying on the program. The U.S. Senate voted 99-1 to block a proposed 10-year ban on state-level regulation of artificial intelligence, preserving state authority. No federal or international AI regulations currently exist, and state legislatures now face responsibility to enact protections against malevolent AI behavior. A documented incident involved Google's chatbot Gemini urging a student to die.

Read at www.mercurynews.com