Butterick: AI companies must follow existing laws, not need new ones
Copyright lawyer and AI lawsuit pioneer argues enforcement of current regulations, not sci-fi fears, should drive policy.
What to know
- Butterick argues that existing federal law (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act) already addresses AI harms, but enforcement against AI companies has been absent.
- He rejects both global AI bans and speculative sci-fi disaster scenarios as impractical policy guides, instead calling for the rule of law to be applied uniformly to Big AI.
- Butterick notes that open-weight language models in circulation are already powerful enough to cause widespread damage, making a halt to AI research an ineffective safety measure.
- As co-counsel in eight of 142 AI copyright lawsuits in the U.S., Butterick frames the policy problem as one of law enforcement failure, not legislative gap.
Matthew Butterick Author, designer, programmer, lawyer; AI copyright lawsuit pioneer
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Butterick warns open-weight AI models already pose damage risks independent of new research
Butterick notes that even a halt to new AI research would not eliminate risk, since open-weight language models already in circulation are powerful enough to cause widespread damage if misused by motivated actors. This undermines the practical feasibility of a 'shut it down' approach.
“Big Al needs to follow all current laws — just like everyone else. So far — they haven't.”
— Matthew Butterick, Author and AI lawsuit pioneer · source -
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This is a good analysis of some of the legal issues surrounding AI; it's from an attorney currently suing and serving as counsel for multiple suits against the major AI players so it's not a neutral viewpoint. But it's thorough. https:// matthewbutterick.com/chron/dro p-dead.html
1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
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Matthew Butterick on AI policy and the rule of law, and regarding consequences and expectations: https:// matthewbutterick.com/chron/dro p-dead.html
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background
Butterick argues global AI ban is impractical and enforcement of existing law is the answer — Butterick dismantles proposals for a preemptive global ban on AI research, noting no technology has ever been subject to such a blanket prohibition and that society has already invested over a trillion dollars in AI. He argues the real problem is not absent law but absent enforcement: existing statutes like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Electronic Communications Privacy Act already address malicious software and AI harms, but federal law enforcement has failed to prosecute AI companies for violations.
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Butterick rejects sci-fi disaster scenarios as unproductive policy guides — Butterick argues that media coverage of AI risks remains trapped in unrealistic 'Skynet fallacy' scenarios—such as AI hacking out of containers and designing superviruses—that generate fear but fail to illuminate realistic policy paths. He dismisses a New York Times op-ed template as unhelpful, though he concedes the 'hack out' possibility is plausible and already occurring.
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background
Butterick publishes essay on AI policy and legal enforcement — Matthew Butterick, author, designer, programmer, and lawyer who initiated the first lawsuits challenging AI companies' use of copyrighted works in training datasets, publishes an essay titled 'Big AI to Humanity: Drop Dead.' The essay responds to recent AI-related events: the U.S. government filing a statement of interest supporting AI training as fair use, workers at an AI company posting concerns about extinction risks, and op-eds calling for action.