WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of four senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is recommending that Congress spend at least $32 billion over the next three years for development. Artificial intelligence And place Reservations Around that, a report released Wednesday said the U.S. needs to “seize the opportunities and address the threats” of rapidly developing technology.
The group of two Democrats and two Republicans said in an interview Tuesday that while they sometimes disagreed on the best way forward, they felt that the technology's demise and other countries such as China's development had a lot to do with it. Consensus is important to invest. He settled on a raft of broad policy recommendations contained in his 33-page report.
While any AI-related legislation will be difficult to pass, especially in an election year and divided Congress, senators said regulation and incentives for innovation are urgently needed.
“It's complicated, it's difficult, but we can't afford to bury our heads in the sand,” said Schumer, DN.Y. said, who convened the group last year. AI Chatbot Chat entered the GPT market. and demonstrated that it can mimic human behavior in many ways.
The group recommends in the report that Congress draft emergency spending legislation to boost U.S. investment in artificial intelligence, including new research and development and new testing to try to understand the potential harms of the technology. Standards included. The group also recommended new requirements for transparency as artificial intelligence products are introduced and that studies be conducted on the potential impact of AI. Jobs and the American Workforce.
Republican Senator Mike Rounds, a member of the group, said the money would be well spent not only to compete with other countries racing into the AI space, but also to improve the quality of life for Americans. will be done. Cancer or chronic diseases, or improvements in weapons systems, could help a country avoid war, he said.
“This is when the dollars we put into this particular investment will pay long-term dividends for the taxpayers of this country,” he said.
The group came together a year ago when Schumer prioritized the issue — an unusual posture for the majority leader — and brought in Democratic Sen. Martin Henrique of New Mexico, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana and Rounds of South Dakota.
As the four senators began meeting with tech executives and experts, Schumer said in a speech over the summer that the rapid development of artificial intelligence tools was a “revolutionary moment” and that the government was quick to regulate these companies. It should work with those who are preparing it.
Young said the development of ChatGPT, along with other similar models, made him realize “we have to figure out collectively as an organization” how to deal with technology.
In the same breath that people just marveled at the possibilities of a creative AI platform, they began to speculate about future risks that might be associated with future developments in artificial intelligence,” Young said.
Although enacting legislation will be difficult, the group's recommendations offer the first comprehensive roadmap on an issue that is complex and has little precedent for consideration in Congress. The group spent nearly a year compiling a list of policy proposals after speaking privately and publicly with a range of technology companies and other stakeholders, including eight forums to which the entire Senate was invited.
The first forum in September included X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Schumer said after the private meeting that he had asked everyone in the room — including about two dozen tech executives, lawyers and skeptics — whether the government should have a role in overseeing artificial intelligence, and “every A man raised his hand.”
Still, the tech industry has mixed opinions about the future of AI. Musk has expressed serious concerns about the possibility of humanity losing control of its most advanced AI systems if the right safeguards aren't in place, giving rise to popular science fiction. Others are more concerned about the details of how the proposed regulations could affect their businesses, from potential government surveillance of highly capable AI systems to the tracking of highly sought-after AI computer chips for national security.
Four senators are presenting their recommendations to Senate committees, which are then tasked with reviewing them and trying to figure out what's possible. The Senate Rules Committee is already moving forward with legislation, approving three bills on Wednesday that would ban deceptive AI content used to influence federal elections, political ads AI would require disclaimers and develop voluntary guidelines for state election offices overseeing candidates.
Schumer, who controls the Senate schedule, said those election bills were among the chamber's “highest priorities” this year. He also said he planned to sit down with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has expressed interest in looking at AI policy but did not say how he would do so.
Still, getting enough votes on legislation may not be easy. Bills that would ban fraudulent AI election content and require AI disclaimers on political ads were approved by the Rules panel on party-line votes, without GOP support. Republicans argued that the legislation would preempt states that are already working on the issue and potentially infringe on the free speech rights of political candidates.
Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, called the rapid development of AI a “hair on fire” moment for the election. And while states are passing similar bills, he said the country is “unsafe at the federal level.”
Some experts have warned that the United States is behind many other countries on the issue, including the European Union, which took the lead in March when it gave final approval. A big new law Controlling artificial intelligence in a bloc of 27 countries. Europe's AI Act sets stricter rules for AI products and services deemed to pose the greatest risk, such as in medicine, critical infrastructure or policing. But it also includes provisions regulating a new class of generative AI systems like ChatGPT that have grown rapidly in recent years.
Alexandra Reeve-Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it's time for Congress to act. “Focusing on investment and innovation is not enough. We need checkpoints to ensure responsible AI development.
Others said the senators' roadmap wasn't tough enough on tech companies. Some groups calling for tougher AI protections and civil rights protections said it respected industry priorities too much.
Alix Dunn is a senior advisor at AI Now, a policy research center that advocates for greater accountability around AI technology. He criticized the closed-door sessions with tech CEOs. “I don't see how this gets us an inch closer to meaningful government action on AI,” she said.
Senators called for a balance between innovation and safeguards and urgent action.
“We currently have the upper hand on this issue, and it will define the relationship between the United States and our allies and other competing powers in the world for a long time to come,” Heinrich said.
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O'Brien reported from Providence, RI Associated Press writer Dan Merica contributed to this report.