Why do LLM rules follow the same path as early car laws?

Why did cheap cars create a legal problem?

When Henry Ford automated car manufacturing, and suddenly people could afford cars, there was a massive problem. Humans. Cities built for humans walking, and horses (and horses plus carriages), and a few cities had rail connecting them to neighboring cities. And no traffic lights. Electricity had only also recently become available.

That is the setup. Walking speed. Horse speed. Maybe a train between towns. Then a factory that could stamp out a vehicle the middle class could buy. The streets did not get a vote.

Why did the laws show up after the cars?

So: laws. Laws, regulations, regulators, police to enforce the laws. Then later, seat belts. Laws about driving drunk. Etc.

You do not hire a traffic cop for a machine that is not on the road yet. You hire him when the fenders start meeting. Seat belts and drunk-driving statutes are the same pattern, just slower. The body is fragile at this speed. Some people will drink and still take the wheel. None of that was in the first wave. The first wave was: stop hitting each other at the corner.

How did everyone online get a car?

This is the AI / Large Language Model (LLM) age we all entered. The people already online got "a car" called Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) and other LLMs. And now we are all driving.

You did not need a factory job. You needed a browser. And now, regulations follow. Same sequence as Ford. Tool first. Street second. Rulebook third.

What did the companies vacuum, then microwave?

The GPT / LLM companies took a vacuum cleaner to the internet. Other people's data, ideas, dreams, colors, the whole pile. Then they came up with a way for all of us to generate, at microwave-oven speed, content, dreams, colors. But it looks and reads like AI. Then there is pushback to the microwaved dish.

People can taste a microwave meal. They can taste a paragraph that never had a human who would stand behind it. Speed is not a kitchen.

What happens when the EU starts fining?

Then the European Union (EU) comes around and says, hey, we are going to fine you. A lot of money. Regulators gotta be regulating.

And guess what is next on LinkedIn? Thousands of people selling services and solutions specific to this regulation. Built, of course, via LLM prompting. The EU hard at work regulating. Someone out there will come up with an LLM prompt way to sell companies a fix for the watermark fines that are coming, as in already law.

Which would be hilarious. But will happen. Because coding a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution plus the landing page just got massively quicker thanks to our new microwave service called LLMs.

Can you regulate this to zero?

Just as there are still drunk drivers (sadly), and car accidents (sadly), you cannot regulate to zero. There are bad actors on the internet: scammers, and AI slop. Regulators will not get it to zero. I think we all sort of understand the need for something to be done.

Not a ban on cars. Not a fantasy of a perfectly safe road. Lights, belts, a cop for the drunk, and an honest label on the microwave dish. You will still see wrecks. You will still see slop. The test is whether an honest driver can still get to work.