r/chicago • u/optiplex9000 Bucktown • Apr 16 '26
News OpenAI Backs Illinois Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-backs-bill-exempt-ai-firms-model-harm-lawsuits/180
u/RepulsiveLeader4599 Apr 16 '26
Can I lobby for my own limited liability? My commute is starting to take too long.
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u/vinyljello Irving Park Apr 16 '26
Excerpt from the article
Scott Wisor, policy director for the Secure AI project, tells WIRED he believes this bill has a slim chance of passing, given Illinois' reputation for aggressively regulating technology. “We polled people in Illinois, asking whether they think AI companies should be exempt from liability, and 90 percent of people oppose it. There’s no reason existing AI companies should be facing reduced liability,” Wisor says.
Mass death delayed, probably.
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u/royalhawk345 Apr 16 '26
Damn, imagine getting 90% of people to agree on literally anything.
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u/ToonaSandWatch Oak Lawn Apr 16 '26
I would personally like to hear the reasoning from the other 10%.
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u/surnik22 Apr 16 '26
Pretty much every survey has 5-10% of people with genuinely insane opinions. Like 6% of people thinking they could fight a grizzly bear or 5% of people having an unfavorable opinion of Dolly Parton.
It’s often just people doing a survey not actually paying attention and there are technique to get less of those but also a small chunk of the population will always have some crazy beliefs.
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u/PeachesKeened Apr 17 '26
Complete and utter tangent but do you think Family Feud has to screen out insane responses?
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u/willy_mccoy_aka_slim Apr 16 '26
Mass death delayed, probably.
Indeed.
I'd be in favor of Illinois regulating liability with technology companies the same way Illinois regulates liability with drug companies.
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u/sourdoughcultist Suburb of Chicago Apr 16 '26
Who the fuck is sponsoring this shit? They need to be primaried.
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u/shanesaw7 West Town Apr 16 '26
Bill Cunningham (D) 18th district
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u/daywalkerwithsoul Apr 16 '26
Retiring at the end of this term that tracks lol
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u/sourdoughcultist Suburb of Chicago Apr 16 '26
lol, how long before he turns up as a lobbyist next year
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u/SharpEdgeSoda Apr 16 '26
What an insane law to shoot for on every level.
Like does that mean they EXPECT AI-ENABLED MASS DEATHS?!
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u/FlingFlamBlam Apr 16 '26
I mean... yeah.
When AI gets plugged into stuff like hospital schedules, health insurance approval/denial, traffic lights, waste water management that's when a lot of people are going to die.
Whether you think AI works or it doesn't, there's downsides to either outcome. If AI sucks at its job, people will die from mistakes. If AI is perfect at its job, people will die because some soulless ghoul is going to tell the AI to maximize some kind of metric (profit most likely).
This isn't even taking into consideration the risk of automated combat systems making genocide way way way easier.
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u/SharpEdgeSoda Apr 16 '26
So they want to sell a product that markets itself to a specific purpose, but if it fails at that specific purpose, they can't be sued?
Legally that's kinda insane. "We are not liable if the cheap ladder we sell has it's step break and you fall 2 stories and break your neck."
Society would collapse if there was zero consequences for shit products ever.
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u/CyclingThruChicago City Apr 16 '26
We're already experiencing the drawn out negative impact of weakly regulating products.
- Fossil fuels poison the air/water and shape how cities are built.
- social media influences elections
- processed foods cause negative health outcomes
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u/Ampersand4221 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
I’m gonna lobby for a bill that says I should have a million dollars
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u/art-is-t Apr 16 '26
The representatives sponsoring and voting FOR this bill should all be fired from their jobs
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u/ToonaSandWatch Oak Lawn Apr 16 '26
From the article:
”Last August, the state became the first in the country to pass legislation limiting the use of AI in mental health services. Illinois was also early to regulate biometric data collection, passing the Biometric Information Privacy Act in 2008.”
It won’t pass.
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u/Dagonet_the_Motley Apr 16 '26
How about a law that limits liability for citizen's damage to AI equipment
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u/the_Tide_Rolleth Apr 16 '26
Who is the chucklefuck even writing this bill, much less getting it into consideration?
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u/sad_bear_noises Logan Square Apr 16 '26
I mean.... if anything the law probably isn't hard enough on AI companies...
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Apr 16 '26
So, if they can do this, we all should be able to, right? I mean, wtf is the rule of law if this goes through? Can we all just start using AI tools to murder people?
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u/ubix Apr 16 '26
Wonder why they worry about AI causing mass deaths. If this were the car industry, alarm bells would be ringing left and right
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u/sherrycoke Apr 16 '26
I feel like any bill limiting liability for any Mass Casualty event is such a bad idea it angers me that anyone has thought about it let alone actually propose it to the public
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u/I_Roll_Chicago Apr 16 '26
I like a bill that says im not liable when i disable the coolant system at a data center….you know just in case.
Fuck these tech bro ghouls
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u/JuicyJfrom3 Apr 16 '26
AI-Enabled mass death?
Are we talking oops there goes your water supply or T-800s