Pun Salad

Alternate names: Mount Irresponsible, Mount Foolhardy, Mount Airheaded, … or the milder adjective used by the NR editorialists: Trump’s Reckless $5,000 ‘Dividend’.

And then J.D. Vance said… Well, it's a free link, read the whole thing. The only good news here is also the bad news: according to the Stossel/Lott Election Betting Odds site (as I type) Democrats are probably gonna win the House, and are slightly favored to win the Senate too.

Also of note:

• It's rare, so it's worth mentioning when it happens. James Freeman notes A Moment for Trump. (WSJ gifted link) First the Bad and Ugly:

  There is a manufactured quality to the sudden explosion of uninformed and irrational online screeds against data centers. The related panic over artificial intelligence smells almost as suspicious. Is it mainly driven by AI CEOs worried about falling behind upstart competitors and eager for Washington to erect new barriers to entry into their industry? Or is the real fuel for this media fire coming from foreign actors who want to disrupt U.S. technological leadership? Perhaps there’s an international coalition of the shilling.

  Heavy skepticism is in order for a number of reasons, not least the uniquely unpersuasive cast of characters who have joined together to issue warnings against letting technology markets run. Millionaire socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders is always opposed to letting markets run, regardless of the circumstances, so if AI is sentient, it shouldn’t take the Sanders critique personally.

  James runs down the Usual Suspects list (Gates, Obama, …), and then… the Good:

  As is his custom, Mr. Trump is publishing oddball comments on his Truth Social media platform, and as usual one must look past his boasting and roasting to see the substance of his position. In this case he is standing up for the economic liberty and vitality of the United States:

  There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!…

  The only reason the AI/Data Center outburst is happening is because the United States is leading, by a lot, every other country. Don’t kill the Golden Goose!…

  I am the Hoax Buster, and I’m right now breaking another Hoax — That AI is going to take over, consume, and destroy the World, and that Robots will be marching into our Cities, and getting rid of us all! This is even wilder than the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, or the Global Warming Scam. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

  It would be nice if we has a non-"oddball" president and we didn't have to "look past his boasting and roasting". But this is the new normal.

• There ought to be clowns. Ah, but according to Andy Kessler, don't bother; instead The AI Luddites Are Here.

  Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, New York’s Kathy Hochul, Arizona’s Katie Hobbs and Illinois’s JB Pritzker, all Democratic governors, have moved to halt or restrict data-center development or tax incentives. Et tu, Greg Abbott? Sadly yes, after being a huge supporter, Texas’ Republican governor recently signed a temporary moratorium.

  Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act with 20-year prison sentences. Taylor Swift’s not so swift brother-in-law, podcaster and former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, urged sending sealable mugs of urine to data centers in a viral advertisement. How does he think his show is streamed? Cans and string?

  A Gallup poll shows 71% of Americans oppose new data centers in their areas. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has an AI data center reporting website with 9,580 locations—suitable for finding protests. Left-wing organizations from Public Citizen to the Sierra Club help fund these protests, often citing concerns about water usage. I must have missed their protests against almonds and golf courses. Plus, unlike oil refineries or aluminum smelters, I doubt many would know if they walked past a data center.

  Plus which, while channel-surfing last night, I noted a very furled brow on the super-concerned face of a network newscaster. Fortunately, I was able to flip over quickly to a 30 Rock rerun, the one where Liz Lemon decides to embrace what she sees as her inevitable spinsterhood.

• Fill in the blank: "Senator Sanders’s Proposal to           Resembles Hysteria More Than Thoughtful Policy. At Cato, Juan Londoño is also unimpressed with Bernie's ravings from atop Mount Doom: Senator Sanders’s Proposal to Ban Superintelligence Resembles Hysteria More Than Thoughtful Policy.

  On September 3, Senator Bernie Sanders (I‑VT) and Representative Greg Casar (D‑TX) announced their Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would pause the development of “advanced AI” until a new federal regulatory body is set up and, as its name indicates, ban what they define as “superintelligent” artificial intelligence (AI) systems. To those companies or individuals who attempt to develop or deploy these systems, the punishment could go from a “corporate death penalty” to up to 20 years in prison. 

  Prohibition is back, baby.

• Nothing about Trump? A change of pace for Kevin D. Williamson, who observed a guy at the gym with a camera on a tripod, and deduced a truth past due to being universally acknowledged: Influencers Are Schmucks. (Dispatch gifted link)

  Influencers and the broader social media-driven culture of self-promotion are a plague on modern life and, in particular, a plague on public places, especially the fancier or more famous kinds. But they work their way down to the less rarefied levels of American life, too. I do not go to a fancy gym in Manhattan or Beverly Hills or even one of the more glittering parts of Washington, D.C. Where I live is several hours’ drive from any major metropolitan area. It is not the sort of place that attracts celebrities or that produces many of them. I am not fundamentally opposed to that sort of thing—I used to go to a Bikram class in Union Square where the usual participants were three or four gentlemen employed in various capacities on Broadway, about 20 models, and … me, which worked out about how you’d expect it to—but it is not the sort of thing I go out of my way to encounter, either, and it wasn’t exactly what I signed up for when I moved to a small town that is not very close to much of anything.

  The fellow with the camera on the tripod—and another camera pinned to his stars-and-stripes headband—was an influencer of some kind. I don’t know him, but, then, I wouldn’t. Many of the young men in the gym did, speaking in low voices to one another about how so-and-so was here.

  The financial incentives are easy enough to understand. One survey estimates that social media influencers with more than 1 million followers typically earn about $14,000 a month from their online activities, with elite influencers earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Set that aside, for now. Most of the people engaged in cultivating a social media audience make little or no money at all from doing so—they are in it simply for the pleasure of being observed. Wimbledon has just announced that it will ban influencer shenanigans after complaints from players at the U.S. Open—ring lights and such will be disallowed, and influencers will not be given press credentials. Good on the All England Club. But such steps mainly cover the professionals, whereas observers say that most of the disruptive behavior comes from the amateurs.

  You know: schmucks.

  To paraphrase an old movie quote: Who's the bigger schmuck? The influencer, or the schmuck who is influenced by him?