(L-R) NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visit before attending the “AI Insight Forum” outside the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Lawmakers are seeking input from business leaders in the artificial intelligence sector, and some of their most ardent opponents, for writing legislation governing the rapidly evolving technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming out of a three-hour Senate hearing on artificial intelligence, Elon Musk, the head of a handful of tech companies, summarized the grave risks of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some chance \u2013 above zero \u2013 that AI will kill us all. I think it\u2019s low but there\u2019s some chance,\u201d Musk told reporters. \u201cThe consequences of getting AI wrong are severe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he also said the meeting \u201cmay go down in history as being very important for the future of civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The session organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brought high-profile tech CEOs, civil society leaders and more than 60 senators together. The first of nine sessions aims to develop consensus as the Senate prepares to draft legislation to regulate the fast-moving artificial intelligence industry. The group included CEOs of Meta, Google, OpenAI, Nvidia and IBM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the attendees raised their hands \u2014 indicating \u201cyes\u201d \u2014 when asked whether the federal government should oversee AI, Schumer told reporters Wednesday afternoon. But consensus on what that role should be and specifics on legislation remained elusive, according to attendees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benefits and risks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill Gates spoke of AI\u2019s potential to feed the hungry and one unnamed attendee called for spending tens of billions on \u201ctransformational innovation\u201d that could unlock AI\u2019s benefits, Schumer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge for Congress is to promote those benefits while mitigating the societal risks of AI, which include the potential for technology-based discrimination, threats to national security and even, as X owner Musk said, \u201ccivilizational risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou want to be able to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm,\u201d said Schumer, who organized the first of nine sessions. \u201cAnd that will be our difficult job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senators emerging from the meeting said they heard a broad range of perspectives, with representatives from labor unions raising the issue of job displacement and civil rights leaders highlighting the need for an inclusive legislative process that provides the least powerful in society a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most agreed that AI could not be left to its own devices, said Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought Satya Nadella from Microsoft said it best: \u2018When it comes to AI, we shouldn\u2019t be thinking about autopilot. You need to have copilots.\u2019 So who\u2019s going to be watching this activity and making sure that it\u2019s done correctly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other areas of agreement reflected traditional tech industry priorities, such as increasing federal investment in research and development as well as promoting skilled immigration and education, Cantwell added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there was a noticeable lack of engagement on some of the harder questions, she said, particularly on whether a new federal agency is needed to regulate AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere was no discussion of that,\u201d she said, though several in the meeting raised the possibility of assigning some greater oversight responsibilities to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a Commerce Department agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk told journalists after the event that he thinks a standalone agency to regulate AI is likely at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrives on Capitol Hill as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks of artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A meeting of minds?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith AI we can\u2019t be like ostriches sticking our heads in the sand,\u201d Schumer said, according to prepared remarks acquired by CNN. He also noted this is \u201ca conversation never before seen in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The push reflects policymakers\u2019 growing awareness of how artificial intelligence, and particularly the type of generative AI popularized by tools such as ChatGPT, could potentially disrupt business and everyday life in numerous ways \u2014 ranging from increasing commercial productivity to threatening jobs, national security and intellectual property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The high-profile guests trickled in shortly before 10 a.m., with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pausing to chat with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang outside the Senate Russell office building\u2019s Kennedy Caucus Room. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was seen huddling with Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, while X owner Musk quickly swept by a mass of cameras with a quick wave to the crowd. Inside, Musk was seated at the opposite end of the room from Zuckerberg, in what is likely the first time that the two men have shared a room since they began challenging each other to a cage fight months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elon Musk, CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, left, and Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies, take their seats as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks surrounding artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some companies, including Google, IBM, Microsoft and OpenAI, have already offered their own in-depth proposals in white papers and blog posts that describe layers of oversight, testing and transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IBM\u2019s CEO, Arvind Krishna, argued in the meeting that US policy should regulate risky uses of AI, as opposed to just the algorithms themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegulation must account for the context in which AI is deployed,\u201d he said, according to his prepared remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Call for regulation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Executives such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously wowed some senators by publicly calling for new rules early in the industry\u2019s lifecycle, which some lawmakers see as a welcome contrast to the social media industry that has resisted regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clement Delangue, co-founder and CEO of the AI company Hugging Face, tweeted last month that Schumer\u2019s guest list \u201cmight not be the most representative and inclusive,\u201d but that he would try \u201cto share insights from a broad range of community members, especially on topics of openness, transparency, inclusiveness and distribution of power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Civil society groups have voiced concerns about AI\u2019s possible dangers, such as the risk that poorly trained algorithms may inadvertently discriminate against minorities, or that they could ingest the copyrighted works of writers and artists without compensation or permission. Some authors have sued OpenAI over those claims, while others have asked in an open letter to be paid by AI companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n News publishers such as CNN, The New York Times and Disney are some of the content producers who have blocked ChatGPT from using their content. (OpenAI has said exemptions such as fair use apply to its training of large language models.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will push hard to make sure it\u2019s a truly democratic process with full voice and transparency and accountability and balance,\u201d said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, \u201cand that we get to something that actually supports democracy; supports economic mobility; supports education; and innovates in all the best ways and ensures that this protects consumers and people at the front end \u2014 and just not try to fix it after they\u2019ve been harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The concerns reflect what Wiley described as \u201ca fundamental disagreement\u201d with tech companies over how social media platforms handle misinformation, disinformation and speech that is either hateful or incites violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said America can\u2019t make the same mistake with AI that it did with social media. \u201cWe failed to act after social media\u2019s damaging impact on kids\u2019 mental health became clear,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cAI needs to supplement, not supplant, educators, and special care must be taken to prevent harm to students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developing policy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Navigating those diverse interests will be Schumer, who along with three other senators \u2014 South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich and Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young \u2014 is leading the Senate\u2019s approach to AI. Earlier this summer, Schumer held three informational sessions for senators to get up to speed on the technology, including one classified briefing featuring presentations by US national security officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wednesday\u2019s meeting with tech executives and nonprofits marked the next stage of lawmakers\u2019 education on the issue before they get to work developing policy proposals. In announcing the series in June, Schumer emphasized the need for a careful, deliberate approach and acknowledged that \u201cin many ways, we\u2019re starting from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAI is unlike anything Congress has dealt with before,\u201d he said, noting the topic is different from labor, healthcare or defense. \u201cExperts aren\u2019t even sure which questions policymakers should be asking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rounds said hammering out the specific scope of regulations will fall to Senate committees. Schumer added that the goal \u2014 after hosting more sessions \u2014 is to craft legislation over \u201cmonths, not years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re not ready to write the regs today. We\u2019re not there,\u201d Rounds said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A smattering of AI bills have already emerged on Capitol Hill and seek to rein in the industry in various ways, but Schumer\u2019s push represents a higher-level effort to coordinate Congress\u2019s legislative agenda on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New AI legislation could also serve as a potential backstop to voluntary commitments that some AI companies made to the Biden administration earlier this year to ensure their AI models undergo outside testing before they are released to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But even as US lawmakers prepare to legislate by meeting with industry and civil society groups, they are already months if not years behind the European Union, which is expected to finalize a sweeping AI law by year\u2019s end that could ban the use of AI for predictive policing and restrict how it can be used in other contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senators blast AI forum<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A bipartisan pair of US senators sharply criticized the meeting, saying the process is unlikely to produce results and does not do enough to address the societal risks of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley each spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. The two lawmakers recently introduced a legislative framework for artificial intelligence that they said represents a concrete effort to regulate AI \u2014 in contrast to what was happening steps away behind closed doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis forum is not designed to produce legislation,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cOur subcommittee will produce legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blumenthal added that the proposed framework \u2014 which calls for setting up a new independent AI oversight body, as well as a licensing regime for AI development and the ability for people to sue companies over AI-driven harms \u2014 could lead to a draft bill by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to do what has been done for airline safety, car safety, drug safety, medical device safety,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cAI safety is no different \u2014 in fact, potentially even more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawley called Wednesday\u2019s sessions \u201ca giant cocktail party\u201d for the tech industry and slammed the fact that it was private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why we would invite all the biggest monopolists in the world to come and give Congress tips on how to help them make more money, and then close it to the public,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s a terrible idea. These are the same people who have ruined social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite talking tough on tech, Schumer has moved extremely slowly on tech legislation, Hawley said, pointing to several major tech bills from the last Congress that never made it to a Senate floor vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit like antitrust the last two years,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cHe talks about it constantly and does nothing about it. My sense is \u2026 this is a lot of song and dance that covers the fact that actually nothing is advancing. I hope I\u2019m wrong about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawley is also a co-sponsor of a bill introduced Tuesday led by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar that would prohibit generative AI from being used to create deceptive political ads. Klobuchar and Hawley, along with fellow co-sponsors Coons and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, said the measure is needed to keep AI from manipulating voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the broad nature of the summit limited its potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re sitting at a big, round table all by themselves,\u201d Warren said of the executives and civil society leaders, while all the senators sat, listened and didn\u2019t ask questions. \u201cLet\u2019s put something real on the table instead of everybody agree[ing] that we need safety and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schumer said that making the meeting confidential was intended to give lawmakers the chance to hear from the outside in an \u201cunvarnished way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (L-R) NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visit before attending the “AI Insight Forum” outside the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. 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The session at the US Capitol in Washington also gave the tech industry its most significant opportunity yet to influence how lawmakers design the rules that could govern AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n