A Congressman Goes to A.I. School + How to Ban TikTok

<p>Representative Don Beyer thinks artificial intelligence is “the most amazing technology since fire.” So what does it mean that most of Congress seems not to understand it? Then our colleague David McCabe discusses a bill that could dramatically expand the Biden administration’s power to ban TikTok.</p><p>Plus: what can the video game character Waluigi tell us about A.I. chatbots gone rogue?</p><p>On today’s episode:</p><ul><li>Don Beyer is a U.S. representative for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District.</li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-mccabe" target="_blank">David McCabe</a> is a reporter at The New York Times covering technology policy.</li></ul><p>Additional reading:</p><ul><li>Lawmakers are trying to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/03/technology/artificial-intelligence-regulation-congress.html" target="_blank">understand the technology</a> behind A.I.</li><li>The White House is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/technology/white-house-congress-on-tiktok.html" target="_blank">pushing Congress</a> to regulate TikTok.</li><li>A number of countries are trying to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiktok-ban.html" target="_blank">ban TikTok</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/D7PumeYTDPfBTp3i7/the-waluigi-effect-mega-post" target="_blank">The Waluigi effect</a> is a theory about why chatbots behave erratically.</li></ul>