Should Libertarians Support Federal AI Regulation?

Plus: reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug, mass shootings at Bondi Beach and Brown University, and the U.S. seizes a Venezuelan oil tanker

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Should Libertarians Support Federal AI Regulation?

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This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Matt Welch are joined by associate editor Liz Wolfe to discuss President Donald Trump's executive order blocking states from enforcing their own artificial intelligence regulations. The panel debates whether a single national framework for AI is necessary to keep American tech companies competitive or whether it represents a serious blow to federalism. They also examine the White House potentially reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug and what that change could mean for the cannabis industry, tax policy, and federal drug enforcement.

The editors then turn to mass shootings in Australia and at Brown University, including the actions of a bystander credited with saving lives at Bondi Beach, and what these incidents suggest about gun control debates. They discuss the U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker and threats of land strikes against the Nicolás Maduro regime, and cover the conviction of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai under China's national security law and what it signals for press freedom and U.S.-China relations. A listener asks whether modern socialism reflects moral aspirations that could be redirected toward liberty rather than centralized power.

 

0:00—Trump blocks states from regulating AI

10:31—Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug

18:39—Mass shootings in the U.S. and Australia

26:59—U.S. seizes Venezuelan oil tanker

36:48—Listener question on optimism for socialism

46:08—Jimmy Lai found guilty by Hong Kong court

57:12—Weekly cultural recommendations

 

Mentioned in This Podcast

"Donald Trump Tries To Override State AI Regulations via Executive Order," by Jack Nicastro

"Trump Will Let Nvidia Sell Chips to China—but the Feds Will Get 25 Percent of the Profits," by Tosin Akintola

"Trump's Plan To Reclassify Marijuana Would Leave Federal Prohibition Essentially Untouched," by Jacob Sullum

"Stoner King Trump," by Liz Wolfe

"Shootings at Bondi and Brown," by Liz Wolfe

"Trump Dares Congress To Take Its War Powers Seriously in Venezuela," by Matthew Petti

"Trump Is Still Claiming He Saves '25,000 American Lives' When He Blows Up a Suspected Drug Boat," by Jacob Sullum

"Mark Clifford: A Political Prisoner Fights for Free Speech in China," by Billy Binion

"Is Free Speech Doomed in Hong Kong?" By Jack Nicastro

"'I Owe Freedom My Life': Jimmy Lai Is Imprisoned for Criticizing the Chinese Government," by John Stossel

"Hong Kong's Free Press Is Dying," by Liz Wolfe

• Producer: Paul Alexander
• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

What are we consuming this week?

Peter Suderman

• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• A Drop of Corruption: An Ana and Din Mystery (Shadow of the Leviathan), by Robert Jackson Bennett

Matt Welch

• Stand by Me

Liz Wolfe

• The Chosen

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Comments

[SCOTUS gave JeffSarc a big sad]

Liz should get out of NYC, and ask some libertarians these questions.

[Nobartium]

A listener asks whether modern socialism reflects moral aspirations that could be redirected toward liberty rather than centralized power.

Is there an infinite supply of retards trying to make the left/libertarian alliance happen?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

My retard detector went to full alert when I read that but I'm not sure if it was the listener question or the Reason editors that set it off. I may have to have it recalibrated. A year ago I would just buy a cheap Chinese knockoff on Amazon. But tariffs have made that option unaffordable. Thanks Trump.

[Juliana Frink]

"...modern socialism...?"

With technology available today, guaranteed to be at least an order of magnitude more intrusive and repressive than the old school type.

"...moral aspirations...?"

You mean, like, charity?

Who the fuck comes up with this horseshit? Yes, there are astounding numbers of newly minted retards every day. The thing is, they're getting sneakier and more dangerous.

[Rick James]

I am having what I admit is the best guilty pleasure watching mainstream American free market libertarianism slowly morph into Libertarian Marxism.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Jeff once coined the term Socialist Libertarianism a few years ago. Had the bookmark on my old phone.

Ironically it is an accurate description of modern libertinism. Fund depravity, protect against consequences of choice.

[mad.casual]

Even relatively fair assessment of the "moral aspirations" ends up with liberty's body in a ditch with a hole in its head and all the pictures of it standing next to various leaders "retouched".

And you might be tempted to say "That's the old Marxist communism!" to which the obvious reply is a dismissive "Right, the new socialism, which has never been tried before, it 'mostly peaceful'. Dumbass."

Really, in a "borders are abstract constructs" sense, the American media is the Wuhan GOF Research lab of COVID/Socialist ideology. It would be one thing if people were just passively eating bats or raising pigs and the leap just happened naturally, but "journalists" like Reason are intentionally breeding weasels in captivity, infecting them and rubbing their noses in it to generate and propagate novel strains as rapidly as possible and obliquely cloaking themselves in the mantle of authority wrt "moral aspirations".

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Yes. See Reason Magazinr or CATO.

[sarcasmic]

Did the article praise Trump and attack Democrats?

No?

Then the author is a Marxist leftist with TDS.

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

It’s a fucking podcast you glorious retard.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Poor shitlib.

[DesigNate]

“A listener asks whether modern socialism reflects moral aspirations that could be redirected toward liberty rather than centralized power.”

Might I suggest that the listener be near about the head, neck, and shoulders with a wet noodle?

[AT]

How about you just stop pretending to be libertarians completely?

If you want to be libertarians, then become conservatives. If you want to persist in this lie, then just admit that you're leftists.

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

So which hack will pretend they don’t know what “discovery” means when they settle?

BREAKING: Trump just filed a $5 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC for editing his Jan 6th speech to make it look like he called for an insurrection

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2000735053958050082

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

https://cmes.brown.edu/people/mustapha-kharbouch

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

I recommend you screenshot this. I have a suspicion it might get changed.

[Vernon Depner]

Yep. It's gone already.

[Vernon Depner]

Archived:

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/FW8iN

[Vernon Depner]

Palestinian tranny who works for the UN. Big shocker.

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

Nelson hardest hit. And everyone else who only consumes regime approved media.

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

I can exclusively report that the fifth unnamed arrested suspect in the Turtle Island Liberation Front New Year's Eve mass bombing terror plot is Trantifa militant Micah James Legnon (center photo, in blue).

Legnon is on a federal hold in Lafayette, La. He is a trans activist and identifies as a female. His social media is filled with posts calling for the m—rder of people he labels as "fascists."

Authorities say the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a far-left communist "decolonization" terror group, planned to blow up ICE agents and locations with homemade bombs. Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page (trans), 32; Tina Lai, 41; and Dante Gaffield, 24, are the other comrades arrested in Los Angeles after they were caught allegedly traveling to the desert to test their explosives.

Legnon is an ex-Marine and a former cop.

https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2000766297341112534

[Rick James]

I'm still a little shocked that the FBI hasn't come out and identified this group as Antifa, considering they self-declared themselves as Antifa all over their social media.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

No membership cards were found.

[Longtobefree]

One was found, but it was not notarized - - - - - - -

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

Would you prefer each city regulate AI? Do you understand there is a thing called "reality", or do you live in your own fantasy?

[Longtobefree]

"Should Libertarians Support Federal AI Regulation?"

Reason really does need to ask this question, because they do not know that libertarians should not support any federal regulation.
Laws, maybe, if authorized in the US Constitution, but not regulations.

[MWAocdoc]

"whether a single national framework for AI is necessary to keep American tech companies competitive"

First of all, "keeping ... companies competitive" is not necessarily a goal of libertarians. Freedom to compete is certainly a goal of all libertarians. Second, it's not an either-or issue. Federal authority over AI and state or local regulations can both be bad. And, finally, if AI does harm to someone - or someone does harm to someone else based upon exposure to AI - it's a tort issue with damages to be assessed by the best available method - a consideration about which libertarians can honestly disagree. Reason pundits seem to frequently lose sight of the goal here - maximum indivdiual freedom consistent with equal individual rights.

[shadydave]

Libertarians should support laws against fraud. Because of an actually valid use of "interstate commerce," the Federal Government has a role to play there. To the extent that AI is used to commit fraud, the Feds have a significant role. Otherwise it shouldn't have a role, but then again the Federal Government already is involved in all sorts of things it shouldn't be so it doesn't really matter at this point.