Late night legislating & robot overlords
We need a new law that outlaws malicious impersonation.
The average age of a Labour Peer is 75. Tory peers are much younger and in far greater numbers but that’s another story.
Over the past month I've been in awe of my Labour colleagues as they grapple with complex amendments to controversial legislation as the clock ticks down to a summer recess. This has required multiple votes late into the evening, sometimes even after midnight. It's bad enough doing this when you're 56 but several of my colleagues are significantly older than that.
So it was a light relief to get the opportunity to speak in a wide-reaching debate on the implications of advanced artificial intelligence. Ray Kurtzweil I’m sure your ears were burning:
“My Lords, in the rather stressful five years that I spent as deputy leader of the Labour Party, I enriched myself and maintained an equilibrium by reading the works of some of the world’s great technologists. I was struck by two very powerful ideas, which is why I congratulate and thank the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, on this very important debate today.
“The first is the idea that, contrary to 2,000 years of conventional wisdom, technological advance is exponential, not linear. The second is the idea of the technological singularity: a hypothetical point in time where technological advance becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. The context that you put your life in when you realise the enormity of those ideas got me through most Shadow Cabinet meetings, but it also allows me to contribute a couple of things to the security discussion that we are having today.
“The first of these—I note the caveats of the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Houghton of Richmond, about there being contrary views—is that the singularity is no longer hypothetical but inevitable. The second is that, as the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Chartres, said, AI can enhance human life beyond our imagination. It can prolong our lives, eliminate famine and reduce illness; it might even reverse global warming. However, if infused with the consciousness of people with dark hearts—the autocrats, the totalitarians, the nihilists—it could destroy us.”
I gave it a go. Yet the deeper I get back into national policy-making, the more depressed I get on behalf of our children. War, famine, hellish climate events, poverty - it's coming at the next generation from all sides and yet the only thing we're talking about is Nigel Farage’s banking arrangements.
My mood got worse when I pulled down a few podcasts from Mo Gawdat in preparation for the debate. In one interview, his prognosis was so bleak that he even suggested that the current generation of young adults should pause having children. Mo thinks it's so bad that we may not get through the current AI/climate burning years as a species.
Criminal impersonation
The idea of the logarithmic velocity of technological change is so great that it can go either way for the average politician. You can just put down your pencil and zone out of the day-to-day stresses knowing there's nothing you can do, as I frequently did when listening to the discussions around the shadow cabinet table of Jeremy Corbyn. Or you can use your position to do good where you can, when you can. I'm pursuing this strategy in the Lords.
Predictions as to the impact of the bad bits of AI are not universally held, but one thing that concerns everyone is the threat to truth. Truth in the sense of undeniable facts.
Where everyone can agree is not a bad starting point for a legislature. So here’s my low-hanging fruit idea:
We need a new law that outlaws malicious impersonation. And before some idiot columnist gets the wrong end of the stick, no I do not want to ban Rory Bremner. I mean we should ban deep fake impersonations that are unrecognisable from the real person. I think we should do it before the next election, too.
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Watching
John Wick 4. Why I can hear you saying? Because I've watched the other three.
Reading
Follow the Money by Paul Johnson. This is a lovely primer for those interested in the hidden wiring of the UK economy. I've downloaded it in Audible because it's the sort of book you can listen to in chunks.
In your anger, I see fear. I greatly admire the painting and embroidery of artist Lydia Pettit and this statement and portfolio book is as challenging as all her work.
Listening
Harry Potter from start to finish because I never have before. It's lovely.
“Excuse me, can you help me with the photocopying?” How honoured am I to know Lord Simon Woolley? I deeply admire him.
If quoting from this newsletter, please mention “Tom Watson’s newsletter on Substack.” Thank you.
Yes to outlawing malicious impersonation 👏🏽