The Senate Addresses Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This week, the Senate heard from virtually all the captains of America's tech industry including some key defense figures, on the subject of artificial intelligence (AI). Senate Majority Leader Schumer stated, "it was a meeting unlike any other that we have seen in the Senate in a very long time, perhaps ever." This AI Forum, the first of as many as 10, featured Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft boss Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and other companies, as well as representatives of advocacy and civil-liberties groups. The conversation included Eric Fanning, President and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, who chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and, who now chairs its follow-on group, the Special Competitive Studies Project. Other leaders of tech companies participated including: OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, Palantir, IBM and others.  

The forum permitted panelists to engage in a discussion with senators mostly listening. The event was closed to the public, though it was not classified. Schumer said last week that getting AI policy right will be one of the hardest jobs Congress has ever undertaken. "That's why this conversation will be so important," he said, "because it will be the first of a series of forums that will give our committees the knowledge base and thought insights to draft the right kind of policies.”