Montana Becomes First State to Enshrine ‘Right to Compute’ Into Law - Montana Newsroom
https://montananewsroom.com/montana-becomes-first-state-to-enshrine-right-to-compute-into-law/
https://montananewsroom.com/montana-becomes-first-state-to-enshrine-right-to-compute-into-law/
36 Comments
astutemural@midwest.social · 45 pts · 272d
EDIT: So after reading the bill, I can see the following problem:
It limits any level of government from restricting the private use of AI tech unless it meets a relatively high bar of legality and specificity. Remember that private use refers to both personal and business use. This means that e.g. a township could NOT decide to ban datacenters due to environmental concerns, water use, etc. They would need to prove a specific datacenter was 'creating common law nuisances' AND that they had exhausted other legal options before they could create any legal restrictions on that specific datacenter (let alone a blanket restriction). The law technically allows for other 'compelling government interests', but fails to list them... meaning it could be challenged in court and would be completely open to a judge's decision. Basically this creates a legal environment where datacenters have a right to operate and any attempt to regulate them would be fraught with the risk of expensive court cases.
Pro-business legislation dressed up as personal rights. Never change, Montana.
W3dd1e@lemmy.zip · 43 pts · 273d
Montana’s new slogan. No restriction on AI. Come here and ruin our state with data centers.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 273d
This is how I read it. Their slanted court and legislature will determine access goes both ways and force the centers into their communities. Funny how they are putting them as far north with access to water sources.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 273d
Let's hope that whole "Ultra-Volcano" underneath them doesn't turn out to be true.
MasterBlaster@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 273d
That's Wyoming - Yellowstone. Though given it's size, I suppose it could also be there.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 273d
Yes, and...
nforminvasion@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 272d
This is such an insane map because a meter of ash is not that much when compared to other volcanoes, let alone a supervolcano. At the center would be dozens of meters of ash. Vesuvius in 70ad poured 60 feet of ash and debris onto Herculaneum and 40 onto Pompeii. Granted that was a pretty big eruption. But still, compared to fucking Yellowstone??
MasterBlaster@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 271d
That graphic might be underestimating the damage. The last documentary I saw said a major global extinction was caused by the last one and areas similar to the ones here were scortched, not ash covered. But again, it was a while ago, and memory tends to make things bigger.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 271d
God, I hope you're right.
MasterBlaster@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 271d
Well, that's rather cruel and self a destructive. Millions die immediately and billions die of starvation, leaving only the wealthiest, least compassionate people alive.
canadaduane@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 270d
I note this sentiment has a lot in common with Christian millennialist theology and anticipation of end-times.
njordomir@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 272d
A shame because even after years of environmental abuse, the Montana we have now is still beautiful and could still be preserved.
Swap our rivers for cracked mud and pools of battery acid. Burn the earth for a crack-addled chatbot... or turn off your phone and go for a beautiful hike outside of Bozeman, MT? I know which one I would pick.
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 273d
Of all the states it's a great pick. Cold weather much of the year to help cool systems naturally.
Fredselfish@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 273d
Promise this will be nothing good for Montana or it's citizens.
Delta_V@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 273d
Its Orwellian double-speak. It implements restrictions on how people in Montana are allowed to use their personal property (computers) where no restrictions existed before.
Fredselfish@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 273d
Figured it was something like this.
village604@adultswim.fan · 9 pts · 273d
Don't listen to them; they're full of shit. The bill restricts the government from restricting use of private compute resources unless they can prove they don't have a less restrictive way of addressing a legitimate problem.
FaceDeer@fedia.io · 3 pts · 273d
But you don't understand, we all hate AI so much that this must be evil somehow.
village604@adultswim.fan · 2 pts · 273d
Which is funny because the bill explicitly states that deepfakes and data centers are things the government can restrict.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 273d
I just read the bill. Where are you seeing restrictions? I'm reading it as restrictions are banned unless there is compelling reason for the government to enact such restrictions. That's all well enough defined.
EDIT: I was wrong on the DCs. Restricting them is specifically called out in the bill. Good deal!
Only negative thing I'm seeing is this seems to make banning new DCs a lot tougher.
village604@adultswim.fan · 4 pts · 273d
Tell me you haven't read the bill without telling me you haven't read the bill.
It absolutely does not place restrictions on the use of personal property. It does the exact opposite.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 273d
It's a whopping 6 pages and mostly double-spaced and more white space. And lemmy upvotes these cynical comments without a shred of investigation.
I'm reading it as making data centers harder to block, now I'm not so sure. Your take?
village604@adultswim.fan · 4 pts · 273d
The bill explicitly states that data centers being a public nuisance is a "Compelling government interest," so I don't think it's geared towards protecting data centers.
Edit: there is one major issue with the bill; it still keeps the door open for age verification.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 272d
Missed that line! Thanks!
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 27 pts · 273d
treadful@lemmy.zip · 27 pts · 273d
The bill text of SB-212 seems pretty reasonable. Basically just says the government needs a good reason to create regulations on computation.
It even explicitly mentions good reasons may include things like fraud, deepfakes, and public nuisances of datacenters.
As a Montanan, I'm cool with it. Guess we'll see how it's used.
General_Effort@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 273d
I wonder if this would make it illegal to cut off someone's internet if they are accused of piracy. Probably that sort of thing still goes.
It might provide a protection against anti-circumvention laws and such; laws that make it criminal to mess with hardware DRM on your devices.
VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 272d
My first thought was about potentially protecting encryption, with all the privacy-invading laws that are popping up here in the US and abroad, but after skimming through the bill it seems like they could still use the "but criminals use encryption" line
General_Effort@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 272d
It wouldn't be so easy. Such restrictions would have to be limited to those demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling government interest.
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 271d
I don't think it says that a company can't put restrictions on you. It says The government can't restrict how it's used —notably supported by AI groups so they can't regulate that. A company can still prevent you from doing whatever the hell they want if they have the power to.
General_Effort@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 271d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention
Cooper8@feddit.online · 7 pts · 273d
It's too bad it leaves the door open for age verification requirements, but the language is overall pretty decent.
Harkronis@kbin.melroy.org · 8 pts · 273d
General_Effort@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 273d
Yes. I think the last time I heard of Montana was in The Hunt for Red October.
myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 271d
The internet is getting so shitty, either another web needs to start or we are just going to stop using it.
Poojabber@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 271d
Im already pretty much there. Lemmy is pretty much the last place I "surf the internet." Outside of here I only use the internet for work purposes. It is absolutely dead as source of entertainment or media.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 271d
the only good thing about montana is zooey zephyr