Is this a nothingburger just used to try to get companies to build datacenters in the state?
Zolnikov summarized the law as: “Everything is legal except for what’s not,” with exceptions to be added such as deepfakes or posting inappropriate pictures of children. “Unless it’s because of safety or security, other jurisdictions cannot limit the use of AI or computation,” he said.
Thank you, Mr. Montana senator, for providing the guarantee that all AI use is legal except for those uses of AI which are forbidden by the law.
I guess the confusing thing for me was more using the terminology "state senator" vs "state's senator" rather than the existence of state senates in addition to the federal senate. I think it would be equally confusing if Scotland called their parliament's members "country MP" and their members of the UK parliament "country's MP"
US states are at liberty to structure their local government as they wish. This usually involves a bicameral legislature (although not always) similar to the US one, where one chamber is called the senate and its members senators.
Some of the state senates predate the federal senate!
"State senator" unambiguously refers to a senator for the state legislature, and outside of as a term of address maybe, using just "senator" for a state senator would be seen as being deliberately misleading if not lying. As a result it's not so hard to tell them apart in the prose of news articles once you know state legislatures are a thing. A news article would refer to this guy as "a Montana state senator" and use "a Montana senator" for one of the two representatives Montana has in the US Senate.
Of course the top-level comment isn't a news article and was using it as a term of address, so not much help there.
Yeah, it's confusing and I'll admit I really didn't know the difference until a few years ago
when we say "senator", we normally refer to the 2 senates who represent our state in the federal goverment
however, many states have a similar state body to our federal goverment, which includes state congressmen and state senators. They represent our state in state government.
Why on earth do they use the same term??
technically "senate" is a general term:
an assembly or council usually possessing high deliberative and legislative functions
so a parliment can also be called a senate in a purely linguistic sense. But of course, when discussing law and government these terms have specific meaning per country.
As for why they didn't use another term, it's probably a holdover from the early days of America. calling your state legilature a "senate" puts them on the same level as the federal senate. Not quite the case now, but likely very important back in those days. .
Several state senates already existed before even the establishment of the US as an entity, as well, so it wasn't even necessarily copying the federal government in that way.
And I thought the name would refer to rights to bootloader unlocking - you bought your own computing device you should be able to run any computing task you want on it.
I thought it would help with things like net neutrality and rights to use VPNs. Silly me thinking this wasn't going to focus on benefiting the billonaires first and foremost.
You know the government is working against you when they need to pass laws saying "no you cannot stop these corporations". Needing a law to say "you can't control this" is almost contradictory.
Seems to me that this is really an attempt to evade regulations intended to prevent the externalities of datacenter computing - pushing up power prices, draining water supplies, excessive emissions from on-site generators, persistent noise, and the like.
In any case, it's a shift in the burden to require provable harm before regulation can take effect, regardless of public demand to prevent harm.
Ah yes, let's give a bunch of businesses and data centers the presumption of innocence, that will surely work out just fine. After all, it's not fair that only the human citizens get to be presumed innocent and businesses don't. They're both people, and what sort of country would we be if we denied one group of people their rights just because this other group doesn't like them?
Oh, wait, you're saying they're not people? That's not what The Rules say. Don't you want to have rules? Don't you need some rules for anything to work? This is a country governed by the rule of law! What sort of country would we be without the law? You can always change it!
Oh wait, you're saying you can't? That sounds like a personal problem to me. Maybe you should stop being such an insurgent and try talking it out with your fellow citizens like Microsoft, Twitter, and Amazon. I'm just here to get the law passed, its up to y'all to hash it out beforehand.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a dinner date with CrustAI regarding AI sandwich bread manufacturing, my assistant can take you if you've got more. Just make sure you're not here after curfew!
TonesTones | a day ago
Is this a nothingburger just used to try to get companies to build datacenters in the state?
Thank you, Mr. Montana senator, for providing the guarantee that all AI use is legal except for those uses of AI which are forbidden by the law.
snake_case | a day ago
Wild to me that there's only two senators per state and they still find the time to mess around with ineffective policies like this.
PelagiusSeptim | a day ago
He's a state senator, so there are 50 of them for Montana. So plenty of time for stupid ideas to go around!
rich_27 | a day ago
Hold on, a state senator is different from a state's senator? To a non-US person, that's wild. Why on earth do they use the same term?? 😂
updawg | 19 hours ago
This is like asking why Scotland has a parliament if the UK has a parliament.
rich_27 | 17 hours ago
I guess the confusing thing for me was more using the terminology "state senator" vs "state's senator" rather than the existence of state senates in addition to the federal senate. I think it would be equally confusing if Scotland called their parliament's members "country MP" and their members of the UK parliament "country's MP"
updawg | 15 hours ago
But, as other people pointed out, no one says "state's senator," so there's no risk of confusing that with "state senator."
stu2b50 | a day ago
US states are at liberty to structure their local government as they wish. This usually involves a bicameral legislature (although not always) similar to the US one, where one chamber is called the senate and its members senators.
Some of the state senates predate the federal senate!
sparksbet | a day ago
"State senator" unambiguously refers to a senator for the state legislature, and outside of as a term of address maybe, using just "senator" for a state senator would be seen as being deliberately misleading if not lying. As a result it's not so hard to tell them apart in the prose of news articles once you know state legislatures are a thing. A news article would refer to this guy as "a Montana state senator" and use "a Montana senator" for one of the two representatives Montana has in the US Senate.
Of course the top-level comment isn't a news article and was using it as a term of address, so not much help there.
whbboyd | 16 hours ago
But not for either of its two representatives in the House (of Representatives). They're "Montana Representatives". ;)
sparksbet | 15 hours ago
Oh wow do they really only have two representatives? Damn.
Of course, Montana also has a state House of Representatives as well lol
raze2012 | 22 hours ago
Yeah, it's confusing and I'll admit I really didn't know the difference until a few years ago
technically "senate" is a general term:
so a parliment can also be called a senate in a purely linguistic sense. But of course, when discussing law and government these terms have specific meaning per country.
As for why they didn't use another term, it's probably a holdover from the early days of America. calling your state legilature a "senate" puts them on the same level as the federal senate. Not quite the case now, but likely very important back in those days. .
sparksbet | 15 hours ago
Several state senates already existed before even the establishment of the US as an entity, as well, so it wasn't even necessarily copying the federal government in that way.
whs | a day ago
And I thought the name would refer to rights to bootloader unlocking - you bought your own computing device you should be able to run any computing task you want on it.
raze2012 | 22 hours ago
I thought it would help with things like net neutrality and rights to use VPNs. Silly me thinking this wasn't going to focus on benefiting the billonaires first and foremost.
You know the government is working against you when they need to pass laws saying "no you cannot stop these corporations". Needing a law to say "you can't control this" is almost contradictory.
patience_limited | a day ago
Seems to me that this is really an attempt to evade regulations intended to prevent the externalities of datacenter computing - pushing up power prices, draining water supplies, excessive emissions from on-site generators, persistent noise, and the like.
In any case, it's a shift in the burden to require provable harm before regulation can take effect, regardless of public demand to prevent harm.
Thomas-C | 13 hours ago
Ah yes, let's give a bunch of businesses and data centers the presumption of innocence, that will surely work out just fine. After all, it's not fair that only the human citizens get to be presumed innocent and businesses don't. They're both people, and what sort of country would we be if we denied one group of people their rights just because this other group doesn't like them?
Oh, wait, you're saying they're not people? That's not what The Rules say. Don't you want to have rules? Don't you need some rules for anything to work? This is a country governed by the rule of law! What sort of country would we be without the law? You can always change it!
Oh wait, you're saying you can't? That sounds like a personal problem to me. Maybe you should stop being such an insurgent and try talking it out with your fellow citizens like Microsoft, Twitter, and Amazon. I'm just here to get the law passed, its up to y'all to hash it out beforehand.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a dinner date with CrustAI regarding AI sandwich bread manufacturing, my assistant can take you if you've got more. Just make sure you're not here after curfew!