https://frontierinstitute.org/frontier-institute-statement-i...
Ah.
Read: industry can do whatever we want, but the government also has to put up barriers to entry that favor large incumbents.
This has nothing to do with rights or even computing, it's just regulatory capture.
I would say considering there has been almost a year since this bill was signed, what happened since then? Was it applied to hurt people's interests? Did it drive investment?
Are Montanans demonstrably better or worse off because of this in some way?
The AI part honestly looks fairly harmless, just applying existing standards, but I may be wrong there...
I was hoping for that as a reaction to the current tyrannical movements worldwide to end anonymous personal computing.
Always follow the money: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Frontier_Institute
EDIT for the downvoters, from the law:
> Any restrictions placed by the government on the ability to privately own or make use of computational resources for lawful purposes must be limited to those demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling government interest in public health or safety.
This basically means you can't use government action to stop the building of a data-center.
TL;DR: Basically the AI industry trying to ban governments from regulating it
The absence of such a story makes me think this law doesn't protect shit. What exactly did a Montanian get killed or arrested trying to do with a computer that is now protected? Can I use AI during a traffic stop or use AI to surveil and doxx governemnt employees? What exactly is the government giving up by granting me this right?
Or is this just about supressing opposition to data centers?
The scaling of federal power with population is also significant as states like Texas that allow for more housing to be built will probably receive more seats at the next apportionment while states like California will lose seats. Overall, pretty neat to see the design of America work quite well like this.
- Strict limits on governmental regulation, wherein any restrictions must be demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to a compelling public safety or health interest.
- Mandatory safety protocols for AI-controlled critical infrastructure, including a shutdown mechanism and compulsory annual risk management reviews.
How were the necessity and scope of the second rule shown to satisfy the first rule?
"Government actions that restrict the ability to privately own or make use of computational resources for lawful purposes, which infringes on citizens' fundamental rights to property and free expression, must be limited to those demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling government interest."
"When critical infrastructure facilities are controlled in whole or in part by a critical artificial intelligence system, the deployer shall develop a risk management policy after deploying the system that is reasonable and considers guidance and standards in the latest version of the artificial intelligence risk management framework from the national institute of standards and technology, the ISO/IEC 4200 artificial intelligence standard from the international organization for standardization, or another nationally or internationally recognized risk management framework for artificial intelligence systems. A plan prepared under federal requirements constitutes compliance with this section."
In particular, I think the reporting is straight wrong that there's a shutdown requirement. That was in an earlier version (https://legiscan.com/MT/text/SB212/id/3078731) and remains in the title of this version, but seems to have been removed from the actual text.
Given that, they will be computing in a restrictive and controlled environment. I feel sorry for them.
I am going to college (Computer Science) as an older student with previous experience in programming, and it never ceases to amaze me that the current generation of students doesn't think out of the box and is completely dependent on ChatGPT. We all suffered from conditioning from governments and corporations throughout the years, but it is accelerating at an alarming rate.
Acts like this (the one from Montana) are positive, but unfortunate that they simply have to exist and somewhat irrelevant when the big dogs (California, New York and whole countries such as Australia) approve legislation that will promptly be followed by most companies/projects, which will in turn force this way of things happening everywhere else.
Instead, it's wasted on AI slop.
why is this posted now?
Reminds me of some bill in my state about Right to Farm and when you looked deeper it was about rights for huge corporate hog farms to dump waste in the rivers. The slimiest corps always do this 1984 level double talk when they name their bills. It’s a dead giveaway. Citizens United, oh wow cool this is about protecting citizens!
“What about my water?”- not an issue in this area.
“What about my electric bill?”- we’re signing long term contracts with local power companies or building out our own capacity; we eat the marginal costs and don’t increase your bill.
“What about noise?”- we’re far enough away from the nearest person that they cannot hear us; fans are x decibels at y distance; not a problem.
“I saw on Facebook that data centers poison the water and spy on me”- seek help, you cannot block us from building out and giving you oodles of tax money for this nonsense reason.
FTA: right to own, access, and use computational resources
It's a verb.
> Nationally, the Right to Compute movement is gaining traction. Spearheaded by the grassroots group RightToCompute.ai, the campaign argues that computation — like speech and property — is a fundamental human right. “A computer is an extension of the human capacity to think,” the organization states.
> "Compelling government interest " means a government interest of the highest order in protecting the public that cannot be achieved through less restrictive means. This includes but is not limited to: (a) ensuring that a critical infrastructure facility controlled by an artificial intelligence system develops a risk management policy; (b) addressing conduct that deceives or defrauds the public; (c) protecting individuals, especially minors, from harm by a person who distributes deepfakes and other harmful synthetic content with actual knowledge of the nature of that material; and (d) taking actions that prevent or abate common law nuisances created by physical datacenter infrastructure.
D seems to address that potentially.
The point isn't whether it's bad or good, but that it establishes a pattern of inconsistency.
Like the region I live in is cold and has lots of water, but we import energy, might as well build closer to the regional mega cities (where it is still relatively cold, with relatively abundant water). There is some kerfuffle going on in the county here about preventing data centers, and I can't imagine there is even anyone interested in building one.
This should be the default policy on regulation. We shouldn't need a specific law to enact it.
Perhaps you think that the distribution of financial resources reflects what is in society's best interests - that Meta, Google et al. have demonstrated their utility in ways that make them literally more important than people with insufficient wealth to outbid those companies for water.
Many of us do not.
You have the right to not provide custom software and firmware and technical documentation, the right to enforce remote attestation, and the right to refuse service to whoever you wish.
In essence, it doesn't really mandate anything; it says you should have a plan, and only for "critical infrastructure facilities":
"Section 4. Infrastructure controlled by critical artificial intelligence system. (1) When critical infrastructure facilities are controlled in whole or in part by a critical artificial intelligence system, the deployer shall develop a risk management policy after deploying the system that is reasonable and considers guidance and standards in the latest version of the artificial intelligence risk management framework from the national institute of standards and technology, the ISO/IEC 4200 artificial intelligence standard from the international organization for standardization, or another nationally or internationally recognized risk management framework for artificial intelligence systems. A plan prepared under federal requirements constitutes compliance with this section."
So it's essentially lip service to AI safety, probably to quell some objections to a bill that otherwise limits regulation of tech platforms.
> but datacenters have few such externalities
Is wild. Energy consumption is one of the biggest externalities that exists today, since global climate change is completely independent of location. Greenhouse gases do not care about borders.
This bill seems to expand powers, not restrict
I wonder why it is after rather than before?
This is a complete sham. Anything really geared towards protecting people would have protections in place before deployment.
"The initiative... contrasts with recent restrictive legislation efforts in states like California and Virginia. Zolnikov, a noted advocate for privacy, has been instrumental in pushing for tech-friendly policies that ensure individual liberties in an evolving digital landscape.
"'As governments around the world and in our own country try to crack down on individual freedom and gain state control over modern technologies,' Zolnikov said. 'Montana is doing the opposite by protecting freedom and restraining the government.'"
And it's the normal framing we always see with this crap. This is more an attempt to protect corporations from regulation then it is to protect individuals.
The "Citizen Right to Compute" complement to the "Data Center Right to Compute".
Use the latter as leverage for the former. What politician wants to be seen downvoting (comparable) individual's right they already gave to data centers?
So the only reason I can think of to forbid such use cases is that people in those professions fear being replaced by machines.
So I don't think current English is in some perfect state that should not change.
On god.
It's ridiculous that AIco's arguments are dwindling down to "it's not copyright infringement to ingest others' work and make 'derivatives' [which often are identical to original authors' works]."
----
We desperately need younger politicians, who can not only keep up with information more sharply (i.e. aren't legally decades-retireable), but also are of the age where their own children are being affected by government re-funding flows away from youth/education/future.
At this point I'm willing to concede that our future probably has companies' individual LLM/genAI products competing against one-another, as digital politicians ["the digital pimp, hard at work... we have needs"--Matrix' Mouse]. Nobody knows how either flesh nor silicon congressmen work, inside; but I think the latter could act more human[e]ly...
Similarly, if I see the People For X organization, I assume they are against X. The Committee for Green Spaces and Clean Air is guaranteed to be an oil company.
Once you develop that reflex, everything calms down. Though admittedly, I passed a sign for Fidos for Freedom. I'm not quite sure what Fidos Against Freedom does. I think they give dogs to disabled people, and they bark at you if you try to leave the house.
computation — like speech and property — is a fundamental human right
I don't necessarily disagree with the idea, but until profit is shared with taxpayers, this is a one-way transaction of taxpayers bankrolling AI companies.
Just like all food sellers have the right not to provide documentation on the ingredients and nutrition of their products?
If you mean besides the extensive harm to air quality, the large land fingerprint of data centers, the massive strain on water resources and treatment facilities, the insane electricity demands resulting in skyrocketing prices pushed onto everyone else, the deafening noise pollution, and what they've done to the price of RAM, then sure. And that's just the data centers!
The usage of AI itself has resulted in all kinds of harm and even actual deaths. AI has wrongfully denied people healthcare coverage they were entitled to preventing or delaying needed surgeries and treatments. There's a growing list of LLM related suicides (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_linked_to_chatbots). The use of AI in parole systems has kept people locked behind bars when they shouldn't have been due to biases in the bots making decisions. AI used for self-driving driving cars have killed pedestrians and other drivers. There are thousands of AI generated harms tracked here: https://airisk.mit.edu/ai-incident-tracker
You don't think there's reasons pass laws banning AI...datacenters?
Because what state is banning the concept of AI? They're banning/restricting the creation of a type of infrastructure within their borders because they feel that is detrimental to their citizens. Maybe it's NIMBY/Luditte BS to you, but people not wanting their resources to go help ensure some dork can have a chat-bot girlfriend seems normal to me.
HELENA, MT — Last Thursday, Governor Greg Gianforte signed SB 212, the Montana Right to Compute Act (MRTCA), marking the state as the first in the nation to secure comprehensive rights for citizens to own and utilize computational and artificial intelligence tools. This legislation positions Montana at the forefront of safeguarding digital privacy and technology accessibility.
The newly signed law not only ensures the fundamental rights to own, access, and use computational resources but also incorporates several critical safeguards:
The initiative, propelled by advocacy from State Senator Daniel Zolnikov and organizations like the Frontier Institute, contrasts with recent restrictive legislation efforts in states like California and Virginia. Zolnikov, a noted advocate for privacy, has been instrumental in pushing for tech-friendly policies that ensure individual liberties in an evolving digital landscape.
“As governments around the world and in our own country try to crack down on individual freedom and gain state control over modern technologies,” Zolnikov said. “Montana is doing the opposite by protecting freedom and restraining the government.”
“With the passage of the Right to Compute Act, Montana has planted a flag in the ground, affirming that here, we will treat attempts to infringe on fundamental rights in the digital age with the utmost scrutiny,” remarked Tanner Avery, Policy Director at the Frontier Institute.
Rep. Keith Ammon from New Hampshire praised Montana’s initiative, stating, “Congratulations to Senator Zolnikov and the Montana Legislature for being the first to establish the ‘right to compute’ in law! I expect other states to follow your lead and protect citizens’ right to access and express themselves through computation.” This sentiment echoes the broader national movement towards similar protections, with legislative efforts underway in New Hampshire and other states.
Globally, the Right to Compute campaign, supported by groups like Haltia.AI and the ASIMOV Protocol, emphasizes the essential nature of computational access as fundamental to innovation and personal freedom. “The Right to Compute bill in Montana is a monumental step forward in ensuring that individuals retain their right to control their own data, protect their privacy, and engage with technology on their own terms,” said Talal Thabet, Co-Founder of Haltia.AI and ASIMOV Protocol.
For more information about the Right to Compute movement and ongoing developments, visit RightToCompute.ai and follow on X @RightToCompute.
Instead of banning tech to save jobs, pass laws that make sure tech prices in externalities (tax carbon emissions), and find other ways to assist people who lose jobs (UBI, good social safety nets, etc).
Don’t stifle progress just because it makes us have to work less.
How do we pick which activities are worth using resources? Which ones are too ‘dorky’ to allow?
Look, I am all for pricing the externalities into resource consumption. Tax carbon production, to make sure energy consumption is sustainable, but don’t dictate which uses of energy are acceptable or ‘worth it’, because I don’t want only mainstream things to be allowed.
A nice ban on playing recorded music would have saved those jobs.
Why would it be your business, or anyone else's, to stop someone from doing this?
It's still way better than Upton Sinclair's time. But it would be nice if the FDA and USDA were run by people who eat rather than sell food.
And none of it prevents bad food handling practices by minimum wage staff.
The US has continually set up protectionist policies to preserve a local workforce. Automotive manufacturers, the shipbuilding industry, etc.
>>this is just me renting space... Okay, so a "network effect" is when things have greater impact due to larger usage. So the data center usage that you're talking about does not represent the overall impact of the data center. Saying "I only pour ONE cup of bleach into the ocean, so I don't see why it's so bad to have the bleach factory pump all its waste in as well" is a WILD take.
https://www.businessinsider.com/living-next-to-data-centers-...
https://www.businessinsider.com/data-centers-northern-virgin...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/opinion/data-centers-ai-a...
https://virginiamercury.com/2026/02/19/legislature-considers...
https://www.wdbj7.com/2026/02/04/virginia-lawmakers-look-add...
https://news.vcu.edu/article/northern-virginia-data-center-a...
This question is not the obvious winner you think it is. To me, and I am sure many, it sort of undermines your argument.
Even in the most ‘free' cultures, society has _always_ restricted people’s individual ability to do things that it collectively deems harmful to the whole society.
When those things impact other people - such as by skyrocketing utility prices, overloading the electrical grid, and more.
At least 4000 years ago, but that's just the earliest we have evidence for
>>>>absence of a correspondingly negative motivating event.
What did you mean? Why do you believe there has not been a motivating event to ban data centers when those bans have happened, which is literally what you said?
I know the whole 90s meme of 'I am a controlled munition' went around because cryptography was labeled an ordnance subject to export control laws, and therefore code that performed those kind of computations were forbidden to be sold abroad, liable to a felony.
What happens today? Government gets rights to source code, logs, and rubber stamps/rejects your code from executing in the cloud?
Government limits your access to commodity infrastructure?
China has 100 reactors under construction - meanwhile in the West, folks like you exist.
> Loudon counts itself among the fastest-growing counties in America with a population over 100,000. Homeowners have watched the median sales price rise more than 70% over the past decade.
Well, there you go, right from one of your ragebait journalism articles. People who are bitter and hate their lives are always looking for something to blame for it, and the most popular thing to blame is the new thing that is in the news. And the click whores that some people call "journalists" will be right there to meet the demand. But it's all bullshit as the massive rise in home values in the area reveals the truth.
GP was insisting that "rights" named laws always come after some negative event and it is weird that we have this "rights" named law without someone being deprived of their computation or whatever. I'm disagreeing with the premise that that's weird by pointing out laws preempt real world events all the time, in either direction (restrictive or permissive).
Reminds me of a quote from some otherwise forgettable movie I saw: "My father left me with very little, except for all his money."
For the record, my net worth increased by about $1M before taxes based on the 1 year of options I got at amzn. But not relevant in this context.
This is like saying, "We don't like how landlords extract value from housing, so we are banning apartment buildings"
You are fighting against productivity improvements when you should be fighting against people hoarding the benefits of productivity improvements.
There have always been rules and laws. The US has never been a totally free market. Most of the laws and rules we have were written in blood by people professing a "free market" right to poison our people, rivers, air, and more.