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Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Meaning. they want to regulate AI before it gets too big. They’re running out of time.
If the senators gathered Tuesday for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on artificial intelligence seem to agree on one thing, it’s that they don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to regulate artificial intelligence as they did with social media.
During the hearing, which included testimony from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, IBM’s (IBM) Chief Regulatory Officer.
The essence of the legislators’ warnings boiled down to the possibility of using artificial intelligence to influence consumers, generate disinformation or reinforce prejudice.
“We had the same choice when we faced social media. We failed to capitalize on that moment,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “Now we have an obligation to do it on AI before the threats and risks become real.”
He fears that artificial intelligence will be misused
During the hearing, Altman, Montgomery and Marcus told the assembled senators that Congress should introduce at least some legislation to regulate the use of artificial intelligence. In particular, Altman and Marcus called for a new regulator that could provide companies with the appropriate licenses to implement different types of AI.
Without them, witnesses said, the AI could present its own unique set of problems.
“Basically, these new systems will be destabilizing,” Marcus said in his initial testimony. “They can and will create convincing lies on a scale humanity has never seen before. Outsiders will use them to influence our choices. Insiders manipulate our markets and our political systems. Democracy itself is under threat.”
Altman, for his part, said he has his own set of concerns about AI. “I think if this technology fails, it could go pretty badly,” he said. “And we want to talk about it out loud. We want to work with the government to prevent this from happening.”
Meanwhile, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned the possibility of using artificial intelligence to influence public opinion.
It calls for regulation of social media, but takes no action
For years, members of Congress have been calling for tougher rules on social media content.
Politicians have called for companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be removed or slimmed down Section 230 protection. Others have pushed for comprehensive data privacy laws to protect online users’ information.
There are several reasons why social media circumvents the regulations, including the lack of consensus on how to do it. Section 230, which forms the basis of the modern Internet, is a frequent target of both Democrats and Republicans. But neither side can agree on why.
Democrats say they want to hold sites accountable for what their users post, especially when it comes to misinformation, while Republicans say they want to prosecute sites for excessive content moderation.
Meanwhile, privacy laws have been in the making for years, but we are in 2023 and there is no real national data privacy law.
There is potential
While Congress has been unable to glean anything regarding social media or privacy, it looks like there may be hope for AI regulation.
Aside from Altman and Montgomery’s calls for regulation, senators have been largely open to ideas about the responsible deployment of AI. And unlike social media hearings, when lawmakers were hostile to witnesses like Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg or former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, senators were generally calm and thoughtful in their comments.
Still, it will likely be some time before any regulation sees the light of day. Blumenthal himself said Tuesday’s hearing was the first of many to come. But given the pace at which artificial intelligence is advancing, Congress may be waiting too long.
Daniel Howley is a technical editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him @Daniel Howley
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