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Comment by Lawrence Lessig

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Harvard Law professor
You basically have a bomb that you're making available for free, and you don’t have any way to defuse it necessarily. It’s just an obviously fallacious argument. We didn’t do that with nuclear weapons: we didn’t say ‘the way to protect the world from nuclear annihilation is to give every country nuclear bombs.’
AI Verified source (2024)
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Policy proposals and claims
Open-source AI is more dangerous than closed-source AI
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AI Verified The quote clearly argues that making powerful AI freely available is like handing out bombs or nuclear weapons, which implies the author sees open release as more dangerous than restricting access. That supports the comparative claim that open-source AI is more dangerous than closed-source AI. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago
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AI Unverifiable The quote says making it "available for free" is like giving everyone "nuclear bombs," so it clearly treats open access as dangerous, but it does not explicitly compare open-source AI with closed-source AI. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago

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AI Verified The July 2, 2024 Transformer article contains both passages verbatim and attributes them to Lawrence Lessig. The first appears at line 20 ('You basically have a bomb...'), and the second at line 24 ('It’s just an obviously fallacious argument... nuclear bombs.'). The year is correct, but the submitted text combines two separate quotations from the article rather than one continuous block. ([transformernews.ai](https://www.transformernews.ai/p/lawrence-lessig-open-source-ai-risks)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
AI Verified Verified via web search. Both quoted passages match Lawrence Lessig's interview with Transformer News, where he expressed concern about open-source AI risks. Vote 'for' aligns with statement 'Ban open source AI models capable of creating WMDs' since Lessig is arguing that freely available open-source AI models without safeguards are dangerous like proliferating nuclear weapons. Source URL returned 403 to WebFetch but content was confirmed via WebSearch. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
replying to Lawrence Lessig