
He also noted this is “a conversation never before seen in Congress.” “With AI we can’t be like ostriches sticking our heads in the sand,” Schumer said, according to prepared remarks acquired by CNN. Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrives on Capitol Hill as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks of artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. Musk told journalists after the event that he thinks a standalone agency to regulate AI is likely at some point.

“There was no discussion of that,” she said, though several in the meeting raised the possibility of assigning some greater oversight responsibilities to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a Commerce Department agency.

Other areas of agreement reflected traditional tech industry priorities, such as increasing federal investment in research and development as well as promoting skilled immigration and education, Cantwell added.īut there was a noticeable lack of engagement on some of the harder questions, she said, particularly on whether a new federal agency is needed to regulate AI. You need to have copilots.’ So who’s going to be watching this activity and making sure that it’s done correctly?” “I thought Satya Nadella from Microsoft said it best: ‘When it comes to AI, we shouldn’t be thinking about autopilot. Most agreed that AI could not be left to its own devices, said Washington Democratic Sen. Senators emerging from the meeting said they heard a broad range of perspectives, with representatives from labor unions raising the issue of job displacement and civil rights leaders highlighting the need for an inclusive legislative process that provides the least powerful in society a voice. “You want to be able to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm,” said Schumer, who organized the first of nine sessions.
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The challenge for Congress is to promote those benefits while mitigating the societal risks of AI, which include the potential for technology-based discrimination, threats to national security and even, as X owner Musk said, “civilizational risk.” But consensus on what that role should be and specifics on legislation remained elusive, according to attendees.īill Gates spoke of AI’s potential to feed the hungry and one unnamed attendee called for spending tens of billions on “transformational innovation” that could unlock AI’s benefits, Schumer said. The group included CEOs of Meta, Google, OpenAI, Nvidia and IBM.Īll the attendees raised their hands - indicating “yes” - when asked whether the federal government should oversee AI, Schumer told reporters Wednesday afternoon. The first of nine sessions aims to develop consensus as the Senate prepares to draft legislation to regulate the fast-moving artificial intelligence industry. The session organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brought high-profile tech CEOs, civil society leaders and more than 60 senators together. “The consequences of getting AI wrong are severe.”īut he also said the meeting “may go down in history as being very important for the future of civilization.” I think it’s low but there’s some chance,” Musk told reporters. “There’s some chance – above zero – that AI will kill us all.

Coming out of a three-hour Senate hearing on artificial intelligence, Elon Musk, the head of a handful of tech companies, summarized the grave risks of AI.
