The United States Senate has a utopian view of what artificial intelligence can bring, as long as it is properly regulated by the government. Senators said the possibilities include a cure for cancer in years instead of decades, treatments for Alzheimer’s, every child having individualized tutors and the elimination of traffic.
To ensure that the U.S. reaches that utopia, a bipartisan working group released what it calls a roadmap for artificial intelligence policy. The plan is something members 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.
The comprehensive package covers everything from 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 AI technology so they do not move overseas.
“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,” Rounds said.
Lawmakers created the roadmap after conducting nine forums in which they heard from tech executives like ChatGPT’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 should not police itself.
“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,” Schumer said. “So everyone agreed that to deal with the liabilities, we need some government guardrails.”
Senators are excited for what AI can do for quality of life. However, they are not ready to let AI take over legislating.
“It may be used for research purposes, but I don’t think in the near term, we’re looking at drafting laws with it,” Young said.
“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,” Heinrich said.
There are dozens of bills and proposals in Congress related to AI. Schumer said Congress will pass some of them this year, including legislation that would prevent AI from influencing elections.
