Prominent technology leaders, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates, are convening with US senators for a closed-door forum on how Congress should establish safeguards for artificial intelligence (AI). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated that legislating on artificial intelligence is among the most complex and critical subjects Congress has ever encountered.
Representatives in Congress are grappling with the challenges posed by AI, aiming to address concerns related to deep fakes, election interference, and potential attacks on critical infrastructure. The forum also includes leaders such as Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Satya Nadella, and Arvind Krishna, along with other senators and officials.
The discussions are focused on the need for congressional action, the key questions to address, and the consensus required to ensure safe AI innovation. In March, Elon Musk and a group of AI experts and executives called for a six-month pause in developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4 due to potential societal risks.
This week, Congress is conducting three separate hearings on AI. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, emphasized the importance of requiring safety measures for AI that controls or manages critical infrastructure. He drew parallels between AI safeguards and safety features in buildings, school buses, and airplanes.
Regulators worldwide are actively working on rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and images that are nearly indistinguishable from human creations. Several companies, including Adobe, IBM, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft, have committed to President Joe Biden‘s voluntary AI commitments, which aim to ensure that AI’s power is used for positive and non-destructive purposes.
Additionally, the White House has been developing an AI executive order to address AI governance and regulation.
