On Wednesday, Big tech personalities including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg headed to Capitol Hill for AI summit to share their future plans for artificial intelligence (AI) as the US readies to pull up legislation to better control the technology.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, has prepared a sequel of so-called AI Innovation forums, closed-door meetings where lawmakers can quiz tech heads about the technology that has carried the world by storm since the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
Europe is well progressive in its own AI Act and the tension is on US lawmakers to avoid slipping behind and noticing AI overwhelm society, with lost jobs, overgrown disinformation, and other effects, before it is too late.
According to remarks shared with the media, Schumer told the meeting that today, we start a tremendously complicated, and important undertaking: creating a foundation for bipartisan AI policy that Congress can pass
“In past circumstances when things were this complex, the natural reaction…was to ignore the issue and let someone else do the job. But with AI we can’t be like ostriches sticking our heads in the sand,” he said.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO and ChatGPT creator, and Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, were also attending the AI Summit, which was shut to the press.
“I’m very optimistic about (AI), but it doesn’t mean that there won’t be some rockiness along the way,” Altman said as he entered the meeting.
“I have been very impressed with our interactions with lawmakers even though I know our industry loves to dig on them,” he added.
Whether the US Congress can pass legislation to restrain AI developers with apparent regulations remains an open question providing the serious political divisions in Washington.
While both sides approve that tech can have very adverse effects on everyday life, the parties usually differ on what the solutions might be.
Tech firms also lobby challenging to keep a light-touch regulatory regime that is pro-business and maintains innovation.
Some senators complained that the meeting was shut to the public and provided too much freedom to tech giants to influence lawmakers.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican who works closely on AI problems, said that this is not how it should be. Senator Schumer has spoken about tech for two years now and he hasn’t put a single noteworthy tech bill on the base, he complained.
The meeting marks the first public encounter between Musk and Zuckerberg since the CEO of Tesla offered a cage fight with his Meta counterpart.
Musk was also sharing the room with Gates, with whom he has a touchy connection, according to a best-selling biography of Musk that was released on Tuesday.
