The Pause AI Movement Is Winning

The movement to pause AI is gaining momentum, but can anyone actually stop the race toward more powerful artificial intelligence?

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In this week's episode of Power User, I’m joined by Washington Post technology journalist Gerrit De Vynck to unpack the growing backlash against AI, the activists calling for a pause on advanced AI development, OpenAI’s decision to slow development of its most advanced models, and the growing political fight over AI data centers.

We break down what the Pause AI movement actually wants, why AI safety activists are worried about superintelligence and rogue AI agents, and whether governments could realistically prevent companies from training increasingly powerful models.

We also discuss the growing grassroots backlash against AI data centers, Bernie Sanders’ role in the AI debate, the national security argument for continuing the AI race, competition with China, and why companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google have very different incentives when it comes to slowing AI development.

Most importantly, we look at a much bigger question: Is the rapid expansion of AI actually inevitable, or could public opposition, regulation and infrastructure constraints meaningfully slow it down??