ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A group of Anchorage locals took to the streets last week to protest the quickening pace of AI development, calling for “an international treaty to pause AI development until it can be made safely.”
The protest was organized by PauseAI Anchorage, a local chapter of a national grassroots advocacy organization. In addition to the protest, 3 Alaskans flew to D.C. with PauseAI in April, to meet with Alaska’s congressional delegation on the topic of AI. One of those three was Maxim Ishchuk, a computer science major at UAA, who was also at last Monday’s protest.
“I noticed a lot of experts were sounding the alarm on AI development and that there is no scientific consensus to make AGI [Artificial General Intelligience] safely,” Ishchuk said. “And at some point, I realized that there weren’t many people in the community doing anything about it.”
When it comes to government regulation on AI, experts and U.S. adults think more regulation is needed, according to PEW Research Center. For his part, Ishchuk said what he encountered in D.C. is that many elected officials were lacking in knowledge on AI.
“Congress is pretty uneducated on AI right now,” Ishchuk said. “And so a lot of it was basically just educating them about the existential risk and just major risks that AI poses in general.”
Some are skeptical that any such treaty like the one PauseAI is calling for will come, among them is Alex Jacquez,
“I think it’s very hard to imagine something right now that looks like a multilateral agreement on AI,” Jacquez said.
Jacquez is currently Senior Vice President for Policy Advocacy and Research at Groundwork Collaborative, prior to that, he previously served on the White House National Economic Council.
“There’s just real doubts, I think, that the government is up to the task, even though people do believe that we need more regulation,” Jacquez said.
Further data from PEW suggests American adults are concerned what AI might mean for their jobs, with 52% of employed adults saying they are “worried” about AI use in the workplace.
“It is largely, I think, being driven from managers, from executives, who are basically being told that they have to deploy these new tools,” Jacquez said. “I think that’s actually causing some of the backlash that we’re seeing amongst people at work who are wondering why there is suddenly an AI button next to every piece of software that they use.”
Amidst a nationally watched race for Alaska’s U.S. Senate Seat, the topic of AI might factor into voter’s decisions, especially as interest in data centers increases in the 49th state.
“If there’s a viability for a data center in Alaska with permitting and the regulatory measures sorted out and it’s going to be cost effective for them, they’ll do it,” Jacquez said. “I think they are trying to deploy as many data centers as possible as quickly as possible and really struggling up against some local opposition in a lot of places.”
Opposition, such as the protest in Anchorage. Ishchuk said he supports the “narrow application” of AI, but is still seeking a to slow unchecked development.
“Narrow applications still allow us to do a lot of the cool things that we want to do with AI,” Ishchuk said. “But we can do that without making beings that can think on their own and, you know, overpower us eventually.”
So as signs spin along the Seward highway, passerby may be prompted to ask a larger question about the future of AI technology.
“I think that Alaskans should really just ask the question,” Ishchuk said. “Do we want to support this push for artificial super intelligence and artificial general intelligence that is smarter than humans?”
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