Steve Bannon stokes fear of an AI “apocalypse”– www.yahoo.com

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Pressure to regulate AI, fueled by apocalyptic prophecy and long-held animosity of tech giants like billionaire Elon Musk, is building within MAGA, and it might be enough to get something done in Congress.

AI-generated images, ranging from muscle-bound depictions of President Donald Trump to memes portraying the president’s opponents as communists, have become a hallmark of online conservatism over the past few years.

Percolating in the background, however, has been a resistance to AI technology, rooted in the conservative movement’s skepticism of Big Tech. Criticism of AI on the right ranges from relatively mundane concerns over AI’s potential ability to defame to warnings that AI has a role to play in the end times.

Central to the concern of right-wingers is the concept of the AI “singularity” — the name for the hypothetical point at which AI becomes able to improve itself, leading to an uncontrollable cascade of advancements in the technology — and Musk, who often features prominently in right-wing critiques of AI for his influence in the Trump administration, a 2014 interview where he predicted that “with artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon” and for his longtime social media profile, in which he sported armor bearing the Sigil of Baphomet.

“If you listen to the four horsemen of the apocalypse — Dario, Musk, Altman… they talk right now about the Big Bang, that this is the Big Bang time for artificial intelligence,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said on a recent episode of his podcast, “War Room.” “As sure as the turning of the Earth, this is going to be the most fundamental radical transformation in all human history, going back to the absolute beginning,” Bannon continued, “and what you have is the most irresponsible people doing it for: one, their own efforts for eternal life, because they do not believe in the underlying tenants of the Judeo-Christian West; and also money and power. It must be stopped.”