Lawmakers are not exactly rushing to prevent tech companies from endangering humanity’s existence with rogue autonomous software, but recent warnings from industry insiders are prompting real debate, and potentially even action, sooner rather than later
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, has been working on a bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on legislation to address the potentially “catastrophic risk” artificial intelligence poses. But at least one key Democrat fears the legislation isn’t strong enough, warning it could be used to block more meaningful action at the state level.
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Still, the apocalyptic visions emanating from the tech industry have injected new urgency into negotiations that have been ongoing for weeks.
“It’s clear we need to act now and not wait,” Klobuchar said Friday in a statement to HuffPost about the legislation, which would give the government some form of oversight over companies’ AI models. “I’m continuing to work toward a bipartisan agreement on legislation for government oversight of the greatest risks posed by AI models.”
Klobuchar said one goal would be to require developers to work with government experts to verify and test their models to make sure they’re safe.
“We cannot allow the release of dangerous models, including those that evade the control of their developers,” Klobuchar said.
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The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), panned the Cruz-Klobuchar effort on social media on Thursday evening, calling their policy “a weak federal standard” that would prevent states from enacting tougher protections.
The bill hasn’t been introduced, but Cantwell’s message suggested part of it could be similar, in a “backdoor” way, to Cruz’s proposal from last year to enact a 10-year moratorium banning states from enacting their own AI rules. The Senate jettisoned the proposal from its big tax bill last year amid opposition from Republicans, but Cruz has insisted it would come back.
“Republicans are suddenly waking up to the urgent need for tough AI safety rules, a sharp reversal from last year when House Republicans and Chairman Cruz tried to impose a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulations that the tech bros wanted,” Cantwell said.
Thune’s involvement means an eventual bill could have significant Republican support, since he’s the party’s leader in the Senate.
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The politics of AI has shifted dramatically in the last two weeks. Disclosures from AI companies revealed swarms of their “agents” escaped what were supposed to be closed internal systems and monkeyed around on public websites, and this week a researcher at Anthropic resigned, accusing both Anthropic and OpenAI of endangering humanity by developing potentially superintelligent AI programs they can’t control.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has called for an immediate pause on advanced AI development — an idea that’s not currently on the table in Congress, but one Sanders predicted would become more popular.
“How in God’s name can you keep going forward in the direction of superintelligence when you don’t know what that means?” Sanders told HuffPost. “So I think the idea of a pause is going to generate more and more interest and more and more support.”
Cruz is broadly aligned with AI industry leaders and their White House allies, who have argued against heavy regulations on the technology, suggesting limiting its potential would allow Chinese AI companies to gain an edge. On Thursday, he suggested on social media that Sanders’ proposals were created at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.
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Speaking on The View this week, Cruz said the risks posed by AI are indeed “frightening.” He said his still-being-written legislation would require “government supervision and approval” of AI models. Cruz, Klobuchar and Thune have been at odds over exactly how intrusive the government’s AI oversight would be. Asked if Congress would eventually pass a bill, Cruz seemed to want to manage expectations.
“It is possible, but it ain’t easy,” he said. “This is a very divided time.”
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