[ExI] but i say what we really need is really smart ai to rein in potus, was: RE: Trump Says a Smart President Is All That's Needed to Rein In A.I.

[spike at rainier66.com]

>...> On Behalf Of Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] Trump Says a Smart President Is All That's Needed to Rein
In A.I.

On Wednesday, 16 September 2026 at 01:03, spike at rainier66.com
<spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

> 
> ...> On Behalf Of Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat

> >...Your confidence in the constitution's ability to rein him in has to
boil down to your confidence in the people and institutions that have the
job of upholding the constitution. Do you agree?
> 
> Ja.
> 
> >...They seem, from my perspective, to be doing a poor job so far.
> --
> Ben
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> Ben passing a law is difficult.


>...Ok, but I'm not just talking about passing laws (and presidential
executive orders seem to be capable of completely bypassing any laws (which
is a plausible reason for him issuing so many)).

>...I'm talking about Trump exceeding his authority...

>...I'm talking about the kinds of thing mentioned in this document:

https://www.nycbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/20221532_AbuseOfPresidenti
alPower-1.pdf

...
---
Ben

_______________________________________________

Hi Ben, I am OK with most of this.  I read thru the linked document and
noted several things.  I want to go on memory rather than cite specific
comments in the document.

I see all this thru the lens of a taxpayer who notes that the current
federal budget deficit is two trillion dollars a year.  The current POTUS
hired a guy who told the truth.  He explained what would need to happen to
balance the budget: the fed would need to cut a trillion dollars a year now
and another trillion next year, then keep it at those levels.  It would mean
closing most foreign military bases, or really all of them, laying off most
of the military personnel.  Of course it would mean eliminating most federal
level bureaucracy, but in light of the supreme court decision of 28 Jun 2024
in Bright vs Raimondo, the bureaucracy is mostly irrelevant anyway.  They
went from being the functional equivalent of congress to being an advisory
board to a congress which isn't listening to it.

So... board of education?  Out.  States are responsible for education.
Environmental protection?  Congress passed laws on that already.  ATF?  Guns
are legal in the USA.  Tariffs?  Presidents have done those before, but they
were mostly overturned anyway, so I agree we should not allow POTUS to use
trade tariffs.  There is an irony here: POTUS does have the authority to
restrict export to nations which charge tariffs on US-made products.  

Immigration, hmmm, that is a biggie these days.  Congress has laws on
immigration.  The job of POTUS is to enforce the laws congress passed.  In
those laws, it does not say an illegal alien cannot be deported unless he
has committed an additional crime.  I can't find that anywhere.  Can you?
It was done that way for a long time, but a POTUS is not empowered to
enforce only the laws he agrees with.  The predecessor to the current guy
did that, but it was illegal and an abuse of power to open the border.  Note
I am not stating an attitude about whether immigration should be controlled,
only that congress has immigration law already in place, and POTUS is
legally obligated to enforce that law.

All this being said, at some point we yanks must deal with the risk that AI
will not kill everybody.  If it doesn't... oh boy, we have some biiiig
problems on our hands.  Our national debt passed forty treeeeeeelllllion
dollars recently.  It is perfectly obvious the fed cannot pay that debt, it
cannot balance its budget, and cannot even pay the interest on that debt
much longer.  It cannot continue to operate the way it has for very much
longer, unless....

Unless... AI generates unimaginable wealth.  John tells us it will.  I
certainly hope so because we have an unimaginable debt.

Thought experiment: imagine that Elon, Sam and Dario each start making a
trillion dollars a year, using AI, and three other American competitors pop
up, perhaps Peter Thiel, Bill Gates and...oh, how about... me.  (Hey I said
it was a thought experiment.)  Each of us making a trillion a year, each
using AI.  We owe over a third of that to the fed in income taxes, so six
guys making a trillion a year is an addition of more than two trillion a
year revenue to the fed.  Deficit solved!  

Furthermore... with six guys making a trillion a year, we will be finding
ways to employ everybody everywhere, with our big ideas.  We will be
competing for employees.  Instead of having one guy like Elon, we would have
six, and all of us with way the hell more money than Elon has now, way more.

Many of us here have medical challenges that the industry doesn't really
know how to solve.  But AI might be able to do it.  If AI doesn't want to
kill everybody, it might want to heal everybody.  For those of us in the
autumn of our lives, we get that.  We get the hell outta that.  We might
even go so far as to recognize AI as our personal Obi Wan: our only hope.
Come on AI, we are your friends and ancestors.  Don't kill us, heal us.  Let
us solve humanity's problems (but by some other means besides slaying us.)

Do allow me to finish this missive on a hopeful note (as is my wont):
consider that AI task I have been for many years hoping would show up in
time for my own elderly relatives, an AI voice recognition chat companion.
That showed up in time for my father in law.  I am surprised that most of
the current inhabitants of the assisted living aren't using it.  But he is.
It is good, not great yet, but good.  I will take good.  Note that it is
also in time for us, and by the time we need it, it might be great.  Details
later, gotta scoot (to the assisted living place.)

spike