The first presidential debate of 2024 unfolded Thursday night between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump and was, as Slate writer Jill Filipovic put it, “the most painful two hours of television in living memory.”
If you missed it, good for you. if you He did watch it, you’ll be forgiven for not remembering what the threads actually were argued shouted vaguely about. Amidst Biden’s excruciatingly painful and “confused nightmarish” performance and Trump’s lies and falsehoods, the debate also seemingly featured a wide range of topics such as abortion, the economy, climate change, foreign policy in Ukraine and Israel, election integrity, immigration. , veterans, race, crime, health care, even which of the two candidates has the better golf game.
However, there was one major issue that the debate failed to raise – despite the fact that it is one of the (if not the THE the most important developments since the last election cycle: artificial intelligence.
Since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in the fall of 2022, generative AI has completely sucked the oxygen out of the room when it comes to business and technology. Industries have improved. American policymakers have been trying to figure out how to regulate the emerging technology. Workers are more fearful than ever that they could eventually be replaced by bots. This makes it even more remarkable that during the US presidential debate, neither candidate nor the moderators chose to raise arguably the most important topic of our time.
And what the hell EASE.
Thursday night’s debacle proved that both candidates can barely wrap their heads around the things they’re literally saying at the moment, let alone the complex and impactful technologies like AI that are actively reshaping the economy and work today. Trump spent most of the night, as he usually does in these debates: bombarding the audience with so many outrageous lies that it becomes nearly impossible to keep track and fact-check. Meanwhile, Biden has given unlimited ammunition to his critics, who have long questioned his mental capacity and age, faltering and losing track so often that even his most ardent supporters are admitting that he has, indeed, he did a really crappy job in the debate.
If AI He did came out, which is likely to happen in the next debate (if it happens at all, that is), we would no doubt have heard a range of falsehoods ranging from deceptive lies to outright lies. You need look no further than what candidates have already said on the topic to see that.
In classic Trumpian fashion, the former president has shown that he has … shall we say, conflicting AI views and experiences, at best. Trump called AI “probably the most dangerous thing out there” in an interview with Fox Business in February.
“It’s very dangerous,” he added. “One day you have no money in your account. It can be a very dangerous thing. And the other thing I think is probably the most dangerous thing there is, because there’s no real solution. UA, as they call it. It’s so scary.”
However, this “danger” did not stop him from using AI to his advantage. In an interview with influencer, WWE wrestler and Japanese forest climber Logan Paul, Trump claimed to have used a chatbot to write a speech, “so beautifully written,” that he later delivered. He was so impressed that he added that “one industry I think is going to disappear is these wonderful wordsmiths.”
While he later expressed his concern about “deepfakes” in an interview, he has benefited from them – albeit indirectly. Dozens of AI fakes showing the former president with black supporters made the rounds earlier this year, though they were not directly linked to his campaign. His former campaign manager Brad Parscale is also helping arm the Republican National Committee and Trump’s latest campaign with an arsenal of AI-generating tools.
Meanwhile, Biden issued an executive order late last year to introduce safeguards for AI. The order tries to strike a balance between policy to help ensure privacy and national security, while also encouraging innovation. While much of the directive still needs to be implemented, and is quite vague on what it will achieve, most technology ethics and AI experts agree that it is a “good start” when it comes to regulating emerging technology. However, that’s about as far as the president goes as far as AI is concerned
Overall, the fact that it didn’t come out on Thursday illustrates a perennial issue when it comes to emerging technologies and government — namely, that policymakers will always move at a glacial pace when it comes to responding to issues and the problems they create. We’ve seen this time and time again with things like social media, climate change, and even now archaic technology like television and radio. The rest of us suffer for it—especially as the damage from those issues unfolds in our daily lives.
It’s probably for the best that HE didn’t appear during Thursday night’s debate – but he should have. And there should be at least one candidate on stage who can speak to the American people about our most important and potentially disruptive technologies. the time.