US Reps Lead Democratic Resolution Opposing A.I. Bubble Bailout for Big Tech

theandrewbailey

Privatize the losses. These are the largest companies the world has ever seen, sitting on piles of assets like dragons. They have hyped AI endlessly to the point that everyone else is sick of it. If they haven't saved any money, and can't bail themselves out, they deserve bankruptcy. Signed, the Silent Majority

wryoak

Gosh I really gotta get a real job again. The RLHF gig work has been great while I’ve been in school - flexibility, good pay - but I’ve known the whole time that it won’t last. Gig workers will be the last consideration when it all falls apart

Sol-

Is there any indication that such a bailout was even planned or is this just populist tilting at windmills?

woodpanel

a) How courageous for them declaring wanting to ban something that isn't being proposed b) if an AI bubble burst were to happen, the fallout would be severe, ie. hard to abstain for policy makers from giving the public ease of mind c) All this proposal wants is to drive a wrench between the GOP and its new (?) populist voters, that don't want any favors given to any Big Tech oligarchs, regardless of it being AI or not. d) this may work or not – neither party is going to abstain from bailing them out, anyways.

ineedaj0b

absolutely ZERO Ai companies need bailouts. this is complete theater. if you are reading this, please do some research on how much money inference prints? its not wildly spoken about because people don’t yap about printing money. “Oh but it’ll all come crashing down” - say you don’t work at a lab or know anyone at a lab. My greater annoyance is HN becoming annoying political in the past few years. Sure, everything is political now but the moderation siloed these posts better. Maybe the user base is too old now. Fresh blood went to Discord or X.

armchairhacker

This doesn’t actually require anything like a law, it’s basically a verbal promise. Or am I misreading? If AI companies were to go bankrupt, it’s possible they’d be nationalized. I don’t see any other feasible option besides that or a bailout (or one but it’s effectively the other, e.g. “nationalized” but the employees including leaders are the same, or bailed out but already subservient to the military). I think the best case is for the compute to be made effectively public: giving every citizen free access, since we’re paying taxes that prevent their bankruptcy.

bushido

A lot of comments read this is as fluff. And in some ways it is. However, looking at the other side, I think what this might do is add some barrier or consideration when a bailout is considered. The last time we did large scale bailouts (TARP[0], in 2008), It was rushed through and ratified in around two weeks following the sudden collapse of Lehman. Any measures we can take to ensure that we don't fall into a situation where there is only one choice is sensible. [0] https://home.treasury.gov/data/troubled-assets-relief-progra...

anon291

I work on AI and I oppose a bailout for an ai bubble or whatever else. If you're lucky enough to be in this field and you're not managing your finances, that's not the governments problem to fix

delichon

Better to just oppose all bailouts for all sectors, always.

ferguess_k

Guess the big AI companies are not paying enough donation to them.

chollida1

The US media using the abbreviation Reps to mean representatives and Republicans at the same time is very confusing.

jrflo

Isn't the purpose of a bailout to stop a larger economic collapse rather than save a company?

nisten

Soo does this mean RAM is gonna get cheaper or more expensive?

clbrmbr

isnt Anthropic already too-big-to-fail?

tangotaylor

> the billionaire AI boys who created the problem Niki Parmar: am I a joke to you?

stego-tech

Fully support it. We’ve had a moral hazard in the USA for half a century with constant bailouts for speculation and gambling by businesses. We must let them fail, no matter how many jobs it costs, no matter what the harm looks like in the short term, to send a clear and unambiguous signal to others that the government won’t backstop your shitty bets.

QuantumNoodle

Any pulse on how likely this is to pass or what hurdles it faces? Neews like these give me hope but often they are written before anything materializes.

boringg

How many people in this thread think that when the Dems win midterms the AI boom has a hard switch to a bust? I really feel like they will rapidly expedite the process instead of having air come out. I definitely didn't think the market would run up right to the date though.

iugtmkbdfil834

Not going to happen. Friendly reminder that when it came to money, politicians know exactly where the bread is buttered. When it came to Silicon Valley Bank bailout, Summers himself personally intervened[1]. Naturally, that is perfectly fine, but if one was to suggest the same for .. say.. students loan, immediately people will descend crying horrified cries of 'but but fiscal responsibility'. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_Silicon_Valley_Ban...

arn3n

For the people in the comments stating that this is just fluff for voters, that may be true. But consider that this memo has another target audience: Investors, Banks, and VCs. I know that many people in those spaces are investing in AI precisely because they believe that should their AI investments fail, the industry will be bailed out by the federal government. Getting AI to be seen favorably by the administration and putting AI within civic government systems and inside defense contracts is a pretty big push towards that outcome.