Congress and the White House scrambled to create guidelines for artificial intelligence as the technology became more common and evolved faster than anyone expected in 2023.
When OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in December 2022, it started a wave of interest in “generative AI,” which can generate text or images based on prompts. The public realized the technology could be used to produce school papers, news articles, technical work, and a range of other tasks — raising the prospect that it could also replace works. Fears grew about how such bots could be used to harm society, including the threat of “superintelligence,” or AI smarter than humans.
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Congress and the White House both worked this year to impose rules and regulations.
In early 2023, President Joe Biden introduced a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” a document outlining fundamental principles for how AI should be developed to protect all people in the United States. These include creating safe systems, combating algorithmic discrimination, establishing data privacy, ensuring users are aware when AI is being used, and allowing people to opt out of the technology.
The president acquired several voluntary agreements from Big AI developers such as OpenAI and Microsoft, agreeing to adhere to certain safety principles while developing their products.
Then, in October, Biden issued a comprehensive executive order on AI. It requires all new high-level large language models be reported to the Commerce Department for safety tests and evaluation under the Defense Production Act. It also calls for the assurance that the privacy risks affiliated with using AI are appropriately mitigated, that appropriate guidelines be developed for each federal agency, and that tools are developed and shared in order to ensure that AI-created items are identifiable and authenticatable.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spent the summer and fall organizing private briefings and “insight forums” to ensure that senators have some grasp on how the technology works and the highest priorities that the industry believes demand regulation. Several lawmakers in the House and Senate have also introduced legislation to begin setting guardrails for the technology. The leading bills being considered include Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune’s (R-SD) framework for ensuring transparency, accountability, and certification through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Rep. Ken Buck’s (R-CO) ban on allowing AI access to nuclear weapons, and Sen. Pete Ricketts’s (R-NE) bill on establishing regulatory guidelines for deepfakes.
Interest in AI is expected to grow in 2024. AI-generated images have already been used in the presidential campaign and will likely be used more as Election Day approaches. Analysts are already worried about the threat of foreign “deepfakes,” or images generated to deceive. Schumer said that he intends to start pushing for the passage of AI-related legislation in January and that legislation related to election deepfakes is at the top of his list.
Original Location: Rise of the chatbot: How Congress and the White House responded to AI in 2023
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