WASHINGTON, March 14, 2023 –  In response to lawmakers’ concerns over the impacts on certain artificial intelligence technologies, experts said at an oversight subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that more government regulation would be necessary to stem their negative impacts.

Relatively new machine learning technology known as generative AI, which is designed to create content on its own, has taken the world by storm. Specific applications such as the recently surfaced ChatGPT, which can write out entire novels from basic user inputs, has drawn both marvel and concern.

Such AI technology can be used to encourage cheating behaviors in academia as well as harm people through the use of  deep fakes, which uses AI to superimpose a user in a video. Such AI can be used to produce “revenge pornography” to harass, silence and blackmail victims.

Aleksander Mądry, professor of Cadence Design Systems of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the subcommittee that AI is a very fast moving technology, meaning the government needs to step in to confirm the objectives of the companies and whether the algorithms match the societal benefits and values. These generative AI technologies are often limited to their human programming and can also display biases.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, raised concerns about this type of AI replacing human jobs. Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and now chair of the AI development initiative known as the Special Competitive Studies Project, said that if this AI can be well-directed, it can aid people in obtaining higher incomes and actually creating more jobs.

To that point, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Massachusetts., raised the question of how much progress the government has made or still needs in AI development.

Schmidt said governments across the country need to look at bolstering the labor force to keep up.

“I just don’t see the progress in government to reform the way of hiring and promoting technical people,” he said. “This technology is too new. You need new students, new ideas, new invention – I think that’s the fastest way.

“On the federal level, the easiest thing to do is to come up with some program that’s ministered by the state or by leading universities and getting them money so that they can build these programs.”

Schmidt urged lawmakers last year to create a digital service academy to train more young American students on AI, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency, reported Axios.

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2023 – Congress should focus on technology regulation, particularly for emerging technology, rather than speech debates, said Adam Conner, vice president of technology policy at American Progress at Broadband Breakfast’s Big Tech and Speech Summit Thursday.

Conner challenged the view of many in industry who assume that any change to current laws, including section 230, would only make the internet worse.  

Conner, who aims to build a progressive technology policy platform and agenda, spent the past 15 years working as a Washington employee for several Silicon Valley companies, including Slack Technologies and Brigade. In 2007, Conner founded Facebook’s Washington office.

Instead, Conner argues that this mindset traps industry leaders in the assumption that the internet is currently the best it could ever be. This is a fallacy, he claims. To avoid this mindset, Conner suggests that the industry focus on regulation for new and emerging technology like artificial intelligence. 

Recent AI innovations, like ChatGPT, create the most human readable AI experience ever made through text, images, and videos, Conner said. The penetration of AI will completely change the discussion about protecting free speech, he said, urging Congress to draft laws now to ensure its safe use in the United States. 

Congress should start its AI regulation with privacy, anti-trust, and child safety laws, he said. Doing so will prove to American citizens that the internet can, in fact, be better than it is now and will promote future policy amendments, he said.

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WASHINGTON, February 28, 2023 – The Commerce Department’s call for applications Tuesday for billions in funding to manufacture semiconductor chips is an attempt to bring packaging of the key technologies back to the United States, alleviate supply chain concerns that have wreaked havoc since the start of the pandemic on consumer products and infrastructure builds, and combat national security threats.

The call for applications – the first of several – will be focused the construction, expansion or modernization of commercial semiconductor manufacturing plants. Later this year, the department will hold separate funding opportunities for semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment and research and development facilities. The department is asking for statements of interest to be submitted starting Tuesday to gauge interest in those later programs.

Much of the money from the legislation, which became law last summer, will be concentrated on the manufacturing component of the life of the semiconductor, which is key to development of computing, critical infrastructure and automobiles. The department has noted that while the U.S. is a global leader in chip design and research and development, it has relinquished position on manufacturing to east Asia, which it said has pioneered methods of manufacturing the chips in a way that makes financial sense. It estimates that the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing accounts for about 10 percent of commercial global production.

But the department has just $52.7 billion to play with – $39 billion for semiconductor incentives, $13.2 billion for research and development and workforce development, and $500 million for strengthening global supply chains. The limited supply of funding from the Chips and Science Act means Commerce’s CHIPS Program Office will be running a tight ship when it comes to delivering the money.

“Trade-offs will be necessary. Not every applicant will receive funding, and many projects will not receive as much support as applicants request,” according to a “vision for success” document released Tuesday. “CHIPS funding will not be used as a crutch to help companies endure temporary slumps. Instead, the CHIPS Program Office will be laser-focused on advancing U.S. economic and national security objectives.”

The incentives funding will be in either direct funding, loans or loan guarantees. Direct funding is expected to range between five to 15 percent of project costs. In total, the program office expects the incentives available to not exceed 35 percent of project costs.

In other words, the program is banking on private investment and other sources of funding to carry a burden. The department said it expects applicants to be offered an incentive from their state or local government and is encouraging them to claim the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit administered by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Moratorium on working with foreign countries of concern and other stipulations

Because of the limited funding available, the department said in a fact sheet that applicants are barred from using the money to pay dividends to shareholders or buying back their own stock. In fact, the department said it will require all applicants to “detail their intentions” on stock buybacks over five years as part of the review process.

The department has put in place other stipulations. A key component of the program is to address national security threats and to ensure that those threats don’t seep into the manufacturing process.

As such, the department is requiring successful applicants agree “not to engage in any significant transaction involving the material expansion of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in any foreign country of concern for the 10-year period beginning on the date of the award, except under certain limited conditions.” The department said it will work with foreign governments to provide clarity on the “purpose and practical impact of these guardrails.”

In addition, recipients of more than $150 million in direct funding will be required to share with the government a portion of any cash that exceeds the applicant’s projections above an established threshold. As part of the workforce component, the department will also require applicants wanting more than $150 million to put in place affordable, reliable and high-quality childcare.

In terms of logistics, the office said the money will be drip fed when the project reaches construction and operational milestones, which gives the department an opportunity to monitor progress and ensure compliance. Any joint work with a foreign entity identified as a national security threat will result in the termination of all funding, the department noted.

Later this year, the department said it will release its strategy for the implementation of the National Semiconductor Technology Center, a public-private consortium intended to gives stakeholders an opportunity to address challenges and opportunities.

“Today’s Notice of Funding Opportunity is a crucial step to unleashing the promise of the CHIPS and Science Act to create good-paying jobs right here at home and end our dangerous dependence on semiconductors manufactured abroad,” Energy and Commerce committee ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J. said in a statement.

“I commend President [Joe] Biden and Secretary [Gina] Raimondo for their dedication to boosting domestic manufacturing of chips, strengthening our supply chains, and unleashing the next generation of innovation. I look forward to continuing to work together with the Administration to successfully implement this historic legislation,” he added.

The precursor to the Chips and Science Act was a June 2021 report from the White House that found the U.S. is “dangerously dependent on specific countries for parts” of products, such as semiconductors.

A number of semiconductor manufacturing plants have been announced or emerged in recent months, including Intel’s $20 billion facility in Ohio, Micron’s $15 billion plant in Idaho, and Wolfspeed’s $5 billion semiconductor plant investment in North Carolina.