DC Politicians Roll Out The Red Carpet For Big Tech At AI Meeting

America’s tech luminaries gathered in Washington, D.C. this week, ostensibly to “educate” senators on the nuances of synthetic intelligence. The convening, known as an “AI perception discussion board,” adopted a number of Congressional hearings associated to AI regulation. Wherever one regarded, the scene was awash with the flash of cameras and the hum of reporters chasing soundbites.

One might simply have been mistaken for pondering a rock live performance was underway, given the overly-warm reception from Senator Chuck Schumer and colleagues. The senator’s message to the tech magnates was clear: tech giants are welcome, even lionized, within the corridors of energy, as long as they play good and cooperate with politicians, who need the ultimate phrase over the way forward for their trade.

The response from tech CEOs like Elon Musk was equally glowing. “I assumed Senator Schumer did an important service to humanity right here,” Musk instructed a reporter.

The overt show of mutual admiration is trigger for concern nonetheless. A living proof: throughout a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to this week, Microsoft’s
MSFT
President, Brad Smith, known as for an AI licensing regime and a brand new, unbiased regulatory physique for AI. On the identical day, Senators Blumenthal and Hawley unveiled a remarkably related regulatory framework. The convergence of those views can’t be dismissed as mere coincidence. Fairly, it’s indicative of an alliance between company America and the political elite.

One needn’t be a conspiracy theorist to see what’s going on right here. The comic George Carlin as soon as opined that bipartisan collaborations like that between Senators Hawley and Blumenthal aren’t all the time undertaken with the general public curiosity at coronary heart. In the event that they have been, such conferences would certainly not be confined to dimly-lit rooms away from the general public gaze, as was the case with the AI perception discussion board assembly this week.

Apparently, that is solely the primary of what are to be many such conferences. From what we’ve seen to date, there’s little motive to assume the periods will generate good concepts. The decision for a brand new regulatory company, for instance, is devoid of any empirical grounding. The place is the proof to substantiate the declare {that a} new bureaucratic entity can handle challenges as assorted as election interference and algorithmic discrimination in hiring selections? The clamor for a brand new company raises a myriad of questions:

Would such an entity be more proficient at governing autonomous autos than the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration?

Would it not outperform the Meals and Drug Administration in overseeing the medical purposes of AI?

Might it protect kids from harmful on-line predators higher than the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

And would it not be extra competent than the Division of Labor at navigating the employment ramifications of AI?

In case you are skeptical that the reply to any of those questions is “sure,” you aren’t alone. There’s a motive why no proof is offered alongside these new regulatory proposals. What’s palpable, nonetheless, is an unsettling alignment between political leaders and tech magnates, seemingly pushed by a mix of politicians’ countless lust for energy and self-serving company pursuits.

The canvas is not fully bleak. There are glimmers of rationality, resembling a current Senate HELP committee white paper, elucidating the potential boons of AI in sectors like healthcare and schooling. The report acknowledges there are dangers posed by AI, but additionally that the U.S. must undertake a versatile method if it desires to keep up a worldwide management place in AI and keep away from stifling innovation.

Sadly, such glimmers of widespread sense are extra the exception than the rule in Washington. If historical past and sage voices like Carlin’s are any guides, an extra of settlement in Washington normally portends a larger-than-usual deception at play.