Finishing The SB-1047 Documentary In 6 Weeks

post by Michaël Trazzi (mtrazzi) · 2024-10-28T20:17:47.465Z · LW · GW · 5 comments

This is a link post for https://manifund.org/projects/finishing-the-sb-1047-documentary-in-6-weeks

Contents

  Summary of the proposal
    Funding
    Interviewees
      Proponents of the bill
      People who were initially critical and ended up somewhat in the middle
      Journalists
      Opponents of the bill
  Project goals
    More links
None
5 comments

(Crossposted from Manifund)

Summary of the proposal

We will produce a one-hour feature documentary about SB-1047, which would:

Scott Wiener, Member of the California State Senate, SB-1047 sponsor
“Congress has not passed major tech regulation in more than a quarter century. And so in the absence of congressional action, California has a responsibility to lead.”

Funding

Dan Hendrycks, Director, Center for AI Safety
“Regulation shouldn't be written in blood."

Interviewees

We have currently completed 23 interviews (including 17 longform) with:

Proponents of the bill

Samuel Hammond (Senior Economist, Foundation for American Innovation)
"The bill moves so much further towards being basically toothless and yet is still vetoed. That sends a signal to the world that if you do a bill that's narrowly focused on catastrophic risk, that won't have the political support."

People who were initially critical and ended up somewhat in the middle

Journalists

Sunny Gandhi, VP of Political Affairs, Encode Justice (bill co-sponsor)
“The lobbying machine that tech has created in DC has always been regarded as one of the most successful in history because it has gotten government to do absolutely nothing.”

Opponents of the bill

Dean Ball, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, and writer of “Hyperdimensional”
"Almost no human creation worth its salt was made from pure thought."

Project goals

Nathan Calvin, Senior Policy Counsel, Center for AI Safety Action Fund (bill co-sponsor)
“We did everything and we tried to put out all of the best text and substance that we could, but then ultimately just one person with his own beliefs is going to make a decision.”
Zvi Mowshowitz, writer of “Don’t Worry About The Vase”
"When SB 1047 was vetoed, I saw a lot of people gloating online about how they had won and how this was a great day. And I told them, remember this day, for you will rue it."

5 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by cfoster0 · 2024-10-28T20:27:58.017Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Other proponents of the bill (longform, 1-3h)

[...]

Charles Foster

Note: I wouldn't personally call myself a proponent, but I'm fine with Michaël putting me in that bucket for the sake of this post.

Replies from: mtrazzi
↑ comment by Michaël Trazzi (mtrazzi) · 2024-10-28T20:52:15.123Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks for the clarification. I have added another more nuanced bucket for people who have changed their positions throughout the year or were somewhat ambivalent towards the end (neither opposing nor supporting the bill strongly).

People who were initially critical and ended up somewhat in the middle

  • Charles Foster (Lead AI Scientist, Finetune) - initially critical, slightly supportive of the final amended version
  • Samuel Hammond (Senior Economist, Foundation for American Innovation) - initially attacked bill as too aggressive, evolved to seeing it as imperfect but worth passing despite being "toothless"
  • Gabriel Weil (Assistant Professor of Law, Touro Law Center) - supported the bill overall, but still had criticisms (thought it did not go far enough)
comment by keltan · 2024-10-29T20:13:01.138Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Professional filmmaker and animator here. I’m willing to donate some of my time (~10-20h) to help create visuals for this project (Should you be in need of that). Happy to send through examples of work if DMed.

Also, what did you shoot on? Netflix used to have a list of camera requirements. I’m not sure if they still hold to them.

Replies from: mtrazzi
↑ comment by Michaël Trazzi (mtrazzi) · 2024-10-30T01:36:13.673Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks for the offer! DMed you. We shot with:
- Camera A (wide shot):  FX3
- Camera B, C: FX30

From what I have read online, the FX30 is not "Netflix-approved" but it won't matter (for distribution) because "it only applies to Netflix produced productions and was really just based on some tech specs to they could market their 4k original content." (link). Basically, if the film has not been commissioned by Netflix, you do not have to satisfy these requirements. (link)

And even for Netflix originals (which won't be the case here), they're actually more flexible on their camera requirements for nonfiction work such as documentaries (they used to have a 80% on camera-approved threshold which they removed).

For our particular documentary, which is primarily interview-based in controlled lighting conditions, the FX30 and FX3 produce virtually identical image quality.

comment by meemi (meeri) · 2024-10-31T07:18:30.422Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I think this is a great project. I believe your documentary would have high impact via informing and inspiring AI policy discussions. You've already interviewed an impressive amount of relevant people. I admire your initiative to take on this project quickly, even before getting funding for it.