If we resist the pull of extremes and commit to disciplined, rights-respecting, iterative governance, the AI age will not be defined by doom or delirium.

The generative AI tools that dominate headlines today were introduced more than three years ago. Technologists would tell you that the models have advanced significantly over that period. In fact, they’d likely say that AI has progressed beyond their wildest expectations. Experts at the leading AI labs may discuss how their models can do on behalf of users. Startups’ founders that make doctors drastically more accurate and allow them to spend far more time with patients. “neolabs” may talk your ear off about new models with capabilities and characteristics even more impressive than those on the market today. The consensus will be that AI has become more complex and sophisticated. The same is not true of popular discourse around AI nor our public policy solutions.

Since early 2023, the AI discourse in the popular press and in legislative chambers has been defined by extremes. Then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited AI experts to the Senate and heard extensively about the existential risks posed by AI. He wasn’t the only one to associate AI with the potential end of humanity. Then-FTC Chair Lina Khan shared that she had a p(doom) of — her odds that AI would cause a cataclysmic event. A sense of inevitable demise continues to pervade some AI conversations. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, recently forecasted that AI would white collar jobs in the span of just a few years. Others have envisioned AI and geopolitical order. Yet, not everyone has settled on this picture of the AI Age.

Today, plenty of folks are convinced of exactly the opposite. such as Elon Musk envision a bright future in which humanity is surrounded by abundance. Conversations around the end of work, universal basic income, and similar utopian outcomes (to some) pass for normal chatter these days. Perhaps paradoxically, some AI experts simultaneously suspect that dire and dreamy futures could lie ahead. Amodei, for one, has touted the possibility of AI .

Where does this leave most Americans? What does this mean for AI regulation?

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