Two bills aimed at regulating how artificial intelligence (AI) is used in elections passed a Senate panel on Wednesday along party lines, representing a test of how lawmakers can meet across the aisle to pass regulations. about evolving technology.
Democrats on the Senate Rules Committee voted in favor of two election-related AI bills opposed by the majority of Republicans on the committee, just hours after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s bipartisan AI working group (DN.Y.), released its long-awaited AI roadmap.
Wednesday’s debate over election bills highlights how a partisan divide could hamper efforts to regulate AI, despite bipartisan support for establishing rules for the new technology and increasing funding for domestic innovation.
The committee voted on three bipartisan bills led by committee chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.): the Election Administrators for AI Readiness Act, the AI Transparency in Elections Act, and the AI Protection Elections Act Misleading. Only the first, which would require the Election Assistance Commission to issue guidelines to help election administrators address the impact of AI on elections, advanced with the committee’s bipartisan support.
The other two — one that would ban the use of deceptive AI in political ads and another that would require liability disclaimers on political ads with AI-generated content — faced opposition from most Republicans on the committee, despite having GOP cosponsors.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued that they could “amend” a “well-developed legal regime” to eliminate fake ads and “create new definitions that could go far beyond deepfakes.”
GOP opposition to bills with bipartisan support indicates a difficult road ahead to pass meaningful AI regulation in a divided Senate, where such bills will likely require 60 votes to pass with filibuster rules in place.
“It’s difficult. We all know that partisanship is endemic here, but the four of us are dedicated to working with our colleagues to address this issue in every way we can,” Schumer said at a news conference Wednesday about the roadmap. , alongside Sens. Mike Rounds (RS.D.), Martin Heinrich (DN.M.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.).
The AI Roadmap does not call for or support specific legislative proposals, but it does include guidance and recommendations on how committees and private industry can make changes to mitigate the risks of AI and maximize its benefits.
The roadmap highlights elections and democracy as a priority area and “encourages relevant committees and AI developers and deployers to promote effective watermarking and digital content provenance as it relates to AI-generated or augmented election content.” ”.
But it stops short of supporting specific bills, like those presented on Wednesday.
“We found areas of bipartisan agreement regarding elections in the report, but we want the committees of jurisdiction to work, as I understand they are in this case, through a bipartisan committee process to consider these various bills. But we have not endorsed any specific election bill,” Young said.
The report was created following a series of AI insights forums convened by Schumer and the bipartisan working group with technology CEOs, researchers and civil rights leaders to consider the risks and benefits of AI.
It’s been nine months since the first forum, attended by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was accomplished. Senators now face an upcoming election as they seek to leverage the report to advance and pass legislation.
Schumer said the goal is to quickly move legislation forward, including the bills that were introduced Wednesday and others that emerge from committee discussions.
“I believe a good number of them will introduce bipartisan legislation that we can pass — not all of them — but that we can pass before the end of the year,” Schumer said.
He said the U.S. should not “rush this like some other countries have done and then had to backtrack.”
“We have to have some humility and also urgency. So we are very hopeful that we will be able to pass some legislation,” he added.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
