Still Learning About Artificial Intelligence, Legislators Say Congress Must Act

WASHINGTON, September 30, 2023 – Although Congress is still learning key aspects of artificial intelligence, senators and representatives speaking at an AI summit on Wednesday said they believed the urgency of the moment required the passage of “some narrow pieces” of legislation.

The same day that Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to halt the release of AI-powered chatbots that the social media giant plans to integrate within its platforms, Markey urged the Federal Trade Commission to protect minors from AI-powered software.

Markey, speaking at Politico’s AI and Tech Summit, cited suicide rates amongst minors using social media and a recent warning from the Surgeon General about social media and adolescent mental health.

“We’re not going to be able to handle devices talking to young people in our society without understanding what the safeguards are going to be,” Markey said.

His message to Big Tech was: “Don’t deploy it until we get the answers to what the safeguards are going to be for the young people in our society.”

Similarly, Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, said he believed it was “very likely” that Congress would pass “some narrow pieces” of a regime regulating AI.

“I hope we go wider and consider a host of different legislative proposals because our innovators, our entrepreneurs, our researchers, our national security committee, they all say that we need to act in this space and we continue to lead the way of the world and manage the many risks that are out there around the financial markets,” Young said.

Other legislators proposed other specific facets of AI regulation.

Congressman Ted Lieu, D-Calif., proposed a law to prevent AI from autonomously using nuclear weapons. He also suggested a national AI commission.

Such a commission would help create a public record about how and why AI should be regulated. Doing so would be preferable to the approach in which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been hosting closed-door briefings with tech giants on the topic.

“AI is innovating so quickly that I think it’s important that we have the national AI commission experts,” Lieu said. “There’s quite a lot of legislation to work on that, that can make recommendations from Congress asking what kind of AI we might want to regulate, how we might want to do about doing so and also provide some time for AI to be developed.”

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., vice chair of the Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus, said that Congress is doing a “great job” educating themselves on AI but that creating legislation that has a human centric framework needs to be properly defined.

“By framework, I don’t mean a bunch of buzzwords flying in close formation, right?” Obernolte said. “What does it mean for AI to be human centered? What role does government have in making sure that they are human centered?”