Congress to Hold New Hearings on AI

Next week is going to be a hot week for AI and Congress. That’s because Congress will hold three hearings on artificial intelligence, one including tech giant Microsoft. According to Reuters, the hearings will also have Microsoft President Brad Smith and Nvidia Chief Scientist William Daly present.

The goal of these hearings is to work on legislation to help mitigate the possible dangers of AI. In the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee will hold a hearing next Tuesday titled, “Oversight of AI: Legislating on Artificial Intelligence.”

On Friday, Senator Richard Blumenthal who chairs the subcommittee said, “Top industry executives and leading experts will help us shape legislation to protect against AI harms.” This comes after a bipartisan draft legislative framework to establish guardrails for AI would be laid out.

This was released by Senator Josh Hawley on Friday as well. “Specific principles for upcoming legislative efforts, including the establishment of an independent oversight body, ensuring legal accountability for harms, defending national security, promoting transparency, and protecting consumers and kids.”

In a separate event, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will host tech leaders and experts the following day, Wednesday, at an AI forum that will include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Then on Thursday, the lower chamber will hold hearings on the potential risks of federal agencies adopting AI. The House Oversight Committee will hold this hearing which will also look at the safeguards needed to protect individual privacy and ensure fair treatment.

Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican who chairs the subcommittee stated, “The federal government must harness the incredible potential of AI to achieve its various missions more effectively and efficiently…However, it is critical that before we let the genie out of the bottle we understand the unique risks of inappropriate use of AI by the federal government.”

Attending these events will also be representatives from the Whitehouse’s Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar along with officials from the Department of Defense. This all comes as AI has rapidly scaled across industries in a few short years.

This expansion has worried governments across the globe and seen them take action. The EU is still working on new regulatory frameworks for AI, and China this summer published the rules on generative AI two months ago.