The Download: Pelosi’s successor targets AI and data centers face power woes

Wire brief

According to public reporting via MIT Technology Review, this is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

In related context, nancy Pelosi’s replacement is ready to regulate AI —Grace Huckins As a California state senator, Scott Wiener authored legislation aimed at curbing the risks of advanced AI. Now, after winning a tight congressional race for Nancy Pelosi’s open San Francisco seat, he could play a key role in setting federal AI policy. I spoke with Wiener only a few hours after he had been declared the victor.

Reporting also notes that but he was already thinking about AI risk: during our 20-minute conversation, he used the phrase “recursive self-improvement” half a dozen times. “We need to slow this down,” he told me. “Because it’s moving very quickly, and we could sleepwalk into a disaster.” Still, he describes himself as only “cautiously optimistic” about Congress’s ability to rein in AI. Here’s what he plans to do about it .

Points still worth watching: The backlash about data centers might really just be about electricity —James O’Donnell As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s largest data center hub. It’s also where the backlash sweeping the country arguably first began to take shape. This Silicon News Wire item is a paraphrased brief; full wording remains on the origin page.

Source & notice

This Silicon News Wire brief paraphrases public reporting from MIT Technology Review for carbon readers and silicon citation. It is not a verbatim full-text reprint.

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