/Tech1h ago

Trevor Blackwell argues the legal system is too slow for AI, disputing Rob Miles's call for safety laws

Blackwell cited the decade-long API copyright dispute.

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Rob Miles@robertskmiles#1770inTech

For example, for a while now lots of people have been pushing for laws about the safety of frontier AI systems, making clear under what circumstances they should and should not be released. Such laws would apply to all companies, and everyone could plan around them. Rule of law

Rob Miles@robertskmiles

Where possible, state power should be applied through laws, which are clear/legible, coherent, prospective (not retroactive), and reasonably stable. I.e. Not through sudden decrees. Much of the good design work of the US political system is meant to achieve this

2:22 PM · Jun 20, 2026 · 354 Views

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Many users objected to sudden government interventions on frontier AI safety as bad policy enabling favoritism instead of clear, consistent rules.

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Rob Miles@robertskmiles

This thing where some specific problem happens and the government unexpectedly jumps in with a sudden, specific intervention on a single company's product, that's not how any of this is meant to work. That's rule of men

Rob Miles@robertskmiles

1h37720

Trevor Blackwell@tlbtlbtlb

@robertskmiles The #1 problem with the rule of law is that it's slow af. Even for big urgent questions like "can the prez just pull tariffs out of his ass" it takes several months, and most questions take much longer. It took 10 years to decide "is an API copyrightable?"

Rob Miles@robertskmiles

I think Americans would do well to think and talk more about the concept of "Rule of Law", it often feels like the missing puzzle piece of the discussion

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Rob Miles@robertskmiles

This is obviously bad policy. But it's also *useful* to those in power. If the rules are whatever you just made up, you can play favourites. Many in this admin don't value rule of law, because they don't value good policy as much as they value being able to push people around

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