[RAY BOGAN]

The United States Senate has a utopian view of what artificial intelligence can bring, as long as it’s properly regulated by the government. Senators said the possibilities include cures to cancer in years, not decades, treatments for Alzheimer’s, every child having individualized tutors, and the elimination of traffic. 

To ensure that utopia is reached, a bipartisan working group released what they call a roadmap for artificial intelligence policy. It’s something they hope Congress will follow as it creates AI regulation. Members of the working group are: Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. 

Their comprehensive package covers everything including the workforce, national security, intellectual property, privacy, deepfakes, sexual abuse and more. It also encourages Congress to spend $32 billion over the next three years on development. 

The Senators hope their plan will ultimately make America a friendly place for businesses developing the technology so they don’t move overseas. 

[SEN. MIKE ROUNDS]

“If they are creating items that are copyrightable, patentable or simply having intellectual property rights that they want protected, we want them to recognize that this is the place in the world that will provide them the most opportunity to see their successes rewarded appropriately.”

[RAY BOGAN]

The roadmap was based on nine forums in which lawmakers heard from tech executives like Chat GPT’s Sam Altman, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, national security experts, civil rights groups and privacy advocates. Participants in those forums said it was clear the government needs to make the rules and that the private sector cannot be left to police itself. 

[SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER]

“Even if a few companies do it, if you have some outlier company, some bottom feeder companies that don’t do it, they put all the rest at a competitive disadvantage. So everyone agreed that to deal with the liabilities, we need some government guardrails.” 

[RAY BOGAN]

But as excited as the Senators are for what AI can do for quality of life, they are not ready to let AI take over legislating. 

[SEN. TODD YOUNG]

“It may be used for research purposes, but I don’t think in the near term, we’re looking at drafting laws with it”  

[SEN. MARTIN HEINRICH]

“I think the large language models are very good at drafting initial drafts, but you have to still have a human in the loop to make sure that, you know, the intent that was designed is actually what comes out the other end.”

[RAY BOGAN]

There are dozens of bills and proposals in Congress related to AI. Senator Schumer hopes to get some of them passed this year, including legislation that would prevent AI from influencing elections.