IP Law Daily, TECHNOLOGY/INTERNET NEWS—Artificial intelligence continues to dominate conversations inside and outside of Washington, D.C., (Sep 20, 2023)
Organizations Mentioned:AFL-CIO
By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.
After the first of several AI Insight Forums held by a bipartisan Senate group, Elon Musk stated his belief that “this meeting may go down in history as being very important for the future of civilization.”
In the Senate. On September 13, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), leaders of a bipartisan AI working group, hosted a much-anticipated AI Insight Forum, the first of several that are planned. According to Senator Schumer, who spoke after the meeting, they discussed many things, including the displacement of workers, whether through job loss or job diminishment, and the training of workers into the new AI jobs. They also discussed election issues, healthcare, deepfakes, watermarking, and transparency. Attendees included Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and CEOs from OpenAI (developer of ChatGPT), NVIDIA, Palantir, IBM, Microsoft, and Google, as well as labor leaders such as Elizabeth Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, and Meredith Stiehm, President of the Writers Guild of America West.
Musk, speaking after the first forum, confirmed that he referred to AI as a “double-edged sword,” and he described the meeting as a “very civilized discussion, actually, among some of the smartest people in the world.” He noted that there was consensus that some AI regulation is in the best interest of the people. He also praised Senator Schumer and stated his belief that “this meeting may go down in history as being very important for the future of civilization.”
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation—which will oversee legislation affecting the AI industry—also attended the forum, about which she stated: “This morning's historic AI panel discussion with the Senate surely covered the opportunities like health care, energy, and risks associated with AI including the disruptive impacts on labor and bias.”
Copilots, not autopilot. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, stated, with regard to the US government response to AI: “We should not be thinking of AI as something that is on autopilot. With AI, it will be much better implemented with copilots.”
Transparency meeting. One day earlier, Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, convened a subcommittee hearing titled “The Need for Transparency in Artificial Intelligence.” Senator Cantwell also attended that meeting and later described it as an opportunity to inform a legislative framework by discussing ways the federal government could drive innovation and maintain U.S. leadership and global competitiveness in AI security-related technology, discover ideas to detect and combat deepfakes and potential national security issues, protect online privacy, and fight discrimination.
In the House. On September 14, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, presided over by Chairwoman Nancy Mace (R-SC), heard from the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Department of Defense, and the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Homeland Security on “How are Federal Agencies Harnessing Artificial Intelligence?” Opening the session, the Chairwoman explained that, not only will AI impact the private workforce, but it “will also shake up the federal workforce itself.” She noted, “Most of the AI policy debate is focused on how the federal government should police the use of AI by the private sector. But the executive branch can’t lose focus from getting its own house in order. It needs to appropriately manage its own use of AI systems – consistent with the law.”
Also last week, on September 14, the Subcommittee on Modernization of the Committee on House Administration, chaired by Stephanie Bice (R-OK) published a Flash Report on “Artificial Intelligence Strategy & Implementation.” According to the report, the House is “considering use cases for mid-sized, risk-managed AI pilots. For example, the House could coordinate with Former Member’s research repositories to gain the ability to ‘ask questions’ of historical congressional figures. Or it could build a Congress-only LLM using public appropriations data from Congress.gov and public spending data from USASpending.gov, data.gov, and Census.”
California. Earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-12-23, which sets out a to-do list for various agencies and state departments, including, but not limited to:
Instructing a handful of agencies to draft a report, within 60 days of the order’s issuance, examining the most significant, potentially beneficial use cases for deployment of GenAI tools by the state, as well as their potential risks to individuals, communities, and government, and state government workers, among other things.
Instructing agencies to issue general guidelines for public sector procurement, uses, and required training for application of GenAI, building on the White House’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and the NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework. State agencies and departments were instructed to consider procurement and enterprise use opportunities where GenAI could improve the efficiency, effectiveness, accessibility, and equity of government operations.
Developing guidelines for agencies and departments to analyze the impact that adopting GenAI tools may have on vulnerable communities. The state will establish the infrastructure needed to conduct pilots of GenAI projects, including California Department of Technology approved environments or “sandboxes” for testing.
Providing trainings for state government workers to use state-approved GenAI to achieve equitable outcomes, and establishing criteria to evaluate the impact of GenAI to the state government workforce.
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