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Some of the commentary around current significant developments in AI and machine learning misses a salient fact: laws already made, whether permissive or prohibitive, still apply. There is a danger that hype, and misconception, will lead to overly restrictive regulation that has a strangulating effect on research and innovation.

There are two main bodies of thought in the explosion of commentary since ChatGPT wrote its first sentence: one, mainly positive on the possibilities to which this new-fangled software could be put, and a second, broadly negative, which ranges from the "our jobs are gone" type speculation to the doomsday, apocalyptic wing of the commentariat.