Ask HN: AI feels like the new radium fad, how should we regulate it?

It feels like with LLMs we are living a new craze similar to the popularization of cocaine in the late 19th-century [1] or the radium fad in the 20th-century [2]. Both of these products were sold without control in drugstores under the promise of unrealistic results. Then, only when people realized how dangerous they are, legislation appeared and they were forbidden.

Since ChatGPT is only 3 years old, it feels like we are living the start of the hype. Currently we are slowly starting to understand the downsides of this technology: internet filled with AI slop, study on cognitive decline, increasing polarisation on social media, users reporting terrible behaviors like encouraging self-harm, etc.

Cocaine and radium have disappeared from consumer grade goods thanks to legislation. It's hard to imagine how much damage they would have caused if they were still in use nowadays but no wonder it would be huge.

I think AI is here to stay but maybe we should hurry in regulating it before it damages society too much. What do you guys think about this?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cocaine#Popularization

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_fad