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Efforts in Congress to pass legislation addressing AI have
stalled despite numerous high-level forums and legislative
proposals over the past year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Democratic Leader
Hakeem Jeffries said the task force would be charged with
producing a comprehensive report and consider "guardrails that
may be appropriate to safeguard the nation against current and
emerging threats."
Generative AI - which can create text, photos and videos in
response to open-ended prompts - has spurred excitement as well
as fears it could make some jobs obsolete, upend elections and
potentially overpower humans and have catastrophic effects.
The issue received new attention after a fake robocall in
January imitating President Joe Biden sought to dissuade people
from voting for him in New Hampshire's Democratic primary
election. The Federal Communications Commission declared this
month calls made with AI-generated voices are illegal.
The task force report will include "guiding principles,
forward-looking recommendations and bipartisan policy proposals
developed in consultation with committees" in Congress.
Jeffries said "the rise of artificial intelligence also presents
a unique set of challenges and certain guardrails must be put in
place to protect the American people."
In October, Biden signed an executive order that aims to reduce
the risks of AI. In January, the Commerce Department said it was
proposing to require U.S. cloud companies to determine whether
foreign entities are accessing U.S. data centers to train AI
models.
Representative Jay Obernolte, the Republican chair of the
24-member task force, said the report will detail "the
regulatory standards and Congressional actions needed to both
protect consumers and foster continued investment and innovation
in AI."
Democratic co-chair Ted Lieu Force said "the question is how to
ensure AI benefits society instead of harming us."
Earlier this month, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said
leading AI companies were among more than 200 entities joining a
new U.S. consortium to support safe AI deployment including
OpenAI, Alphabet's Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, Meta Platforms,
Apple, Amazon.com and Nvidia.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Miral Fahmy)
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