Schumer urges committee chairs to move forward with AI projects

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) urged committee leaders to advance legislation regulating artificial intelligence (AI) during a meeting Wednesday.

Schumer convened committee chairs to discuss AI a week after releasing a report with guidance on how to regulate AI, the senator said in a statement.

“Building on the release of our bipartisan AI Working Group Roadmap, I urged our presidents to report legislation to harness innovation and implement vital policy reforms to democratize access to AI, reduce harmful biases, combat deepfakes, protect and adapt the worker American for the AI ​​era, while providing important protections and sustainable innovations around explainability, transparency, interoperability, and other actions to reduce the societal risks of AI,” said Schumer.

“Ultimately, legislative progress will require continued bipartisan collaboration, but our Committees are on track to make a critical down payment on AI legislation,” he added.

The report released last week by Schumer and Sens. Mike Rounds (RS.D.), Martin Heinrich (DN.M.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.) did not endorse or defend any specific legislative proposals, but rather set out priorities and guidance for how the committees could proceed.

It was the result of a series of AI Insight Forums that Schumer convened last year with leaders of civil society groups, technology companies and researchers.

Schumer’s push for committees to advance AI bills comes as advocates push for more aggressive action. Labor, technology, climate and civil rights advocates widely criticized the AI ​​roadmap report released last week for not specifically calling for legislative proposals.

As Congress considers measures to regulate AI, the industry is moving forward. Over the past two weeks, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google have announced updates to bring more enhanced AI capabilities to users. Apple is also expected to make announcements about AI at its annual conference next month.

Last week, the Senate Rules Committee introduced three election-related AI bills. Although the bills are bipartisan, two of them were opposed by the majority of Republicans on the panel.

So far, Congress has not yet passed any specific AI bills, but many committees have held hearings or discussed potential AI legislation.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story