AI:AM — AI Regulation, Anthropic’s Draft Bill, and the Federal Oversight Gap · October 21, 2026

Zvi Mowshowitz, author of Don’t Worry About the Vase, joins Prakash Narayanan and Nathan Labenz to discuss Anthropic’s proposed AI bill, state preemption, and whether federal oversight could leave a gap in protections. They also examine AI interpretability and monitoring, power-seeking, backpropagation-free training, and how bank cybersecurity and AI agents could challenge existing safeguards.

Chapters

(0:00) The gap in AI oversight

(2:14) Cleaner neurons could improve AI monitoring

(3:46) Strong activations could unlock backprop-free training

(6:03) Helpful AI may still seek power

(7:30) Deleting AI pain could alter other behaviors

(9:23) Meet Zvi Mowshowitz of Don't Worry About the Vase

(10:14) Anthropic's draft bill could leave an oversight gap

(12:44) Preemption is a big thing to give up

(16:27) Congress cannot trade away state authority twice

(19:55) Emergency powers too weak for anyone to use

(22:50) AI research could shrink model cycles to weeks

(27:07) Readable neurons still don't predict the model

(32:51) Models can learn to detect their monitors

(35:48) Optimizing what you see teaches models to hide

(39:20) Only two labs earn deep access to your computer

(42:40) Anthropic's safety culture is graded on a curve

(44:52) Keep state safeguards until the federal brake works

(46:42) Bank hacks could trigger wider deposit flight

(48:07) Can FDIC rescues handle corrupted bank records?

(49:54) AI agents weaken the threat of prosecution

(50:22) Who will pay to save old PHP websites?

(51:41) Paper bank records offer a cybersecurity fallback

Guests

Zvi Mowshowitz — Author, Don't Worry About the Vase (𝕏)

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