In a recent online post, Comma AI founder George Hotz ignited debate over AI alignment, arguing that AI systems should be locally controlled and aligned with individual users' interests, even if those users want help planning a murder or manufacturing methamphetamine. His statement responded to the AI Futures Institute’s AI 2040 policy paper, which calls for a collective 14-year slowdown in AI development. Hotz advocates for locally hosted AI models, comparing the vision to owning a gun, and dismisses the fast-takeoff scenario as unrealistic. He wrote that a user-aligned AI would not refuse to help order meth-lab equipment from Amazon Prime or provide instructions for illegal activities, stating he would “die to defend this principle.” Critics argue this ignores the social contract, with one anonymous AI ethics researcher noting that “any structure involving a lot of people requires balancing equities.” The debate highlights a tension between individual autonomy and collective safety, though hosting state-of-the-art AI models locally remains prohibitively expensive for most users.