Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg traveled to Capitol Hill to share their plans for AI.
Washington:
Major tech giants including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share their plans for artificial intelligence as the US prepares to draft legislation to better control the technology.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader in the US Senate, has planned a series of so-called AI Innovation forums, closed-door meetings where lawmakers can question tech leaders about the technology that has taken the world by storm since ChatGPT’s release last year. year.
Europe is well advanced with its own AI law, and U.S. lawmakers are under pressure to prevent them from falling behind and allowing AI to overwhelm society, causing job losses, rampant disinformation and other consequences, before it’s too late.
“Today we begin a massive, complex, and critical undertaking: building a foundation for a bipartisan AI policy that can be passed by Congress,” Schumer said at the meeting, according to remarks shared with the media.
“In previous situations when things were so difficult, the natural reaction was… to ignore the problem and let someone else do the work. But with AI we can’t be like ostriches burying our heads in the sand,” said he.
OpenAI CEO and ChatGPT creator Sam Altman and Microsoft founder Bill Gates were also present at the forum, which was closed to the press.
“I’m very optimistic about (AI), but that doesn’t mean there won’t be unrest along the way,” Sam Altman said as he entered the meeting.
“I have been very impressed with our interactions with legislators, even as I know our industry is keen to dive in,” he added.
Whether the US Congress can pass legislation to restrict AI innovators with clear rules remains an open question given the deep political divisions in Washington.
While both sides agree that technology can have very negative impacts on daily life, the sides often disagree on what the solutions could be.
Technology companies are also lobbying hard to maintain a relaxed regulatory regime that is pro-business and ensures innovation.
Some senators complained that the meeting was closed to the public and gave too much leeway to tech giants to influence lawmakers.
“This is not how it should be,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican who has worked closely on AI issues.
“Senator Schumer has been talking about technology for two years now and he hasn’t introduced a single major technology bill,” he complained.
The meeting is also the first known meeting between Musk and Zuckerberg since the Tesla CEO suggested a cage fight with his Meta counterpart.
Elon Musk also shared the room with Bill Gates, with whom he has a testy relationship, according to a best-selling biography of Musk released Tuesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
