AI is making Washington smarter
Among the startling, hopeful developments that have greeted the advent of generative artificial intelligence (ai) has been an outbreak of bipartisan focus, curiosity and deliberation in Washington, DC. Legislators and regulators are trying hard to come to grips with the protean technology. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has been holding senators-only briefings with experts to educate his chamber. In late June he called for “a new and unique approach” to writing legislation about AI, saying it was “unlike anything Congress has dealt with before”.
“It’s not like labour or health care or defence where Congress has had a long history we can work off of,” he said. “In many ways, we’re starting from scratch.” He has set up a steering group of two Republicans and two Democrats, including himself, and plans this autumn to supplement the normal committee process, or posturing, with ”AI Insight Forums”, to include the industry’s leaders and its critics, to do “years of work in a matter of months”.
It is understandable that wise guys are making fun of this. Given Congress’s reputation for speed and technological literacy (the Senate was in session for all of 14 days in June, and Mr Schumer uses a flip phone), the jokes write themselves, almost. ChatGPT’s first, unfunny stab reflected the cynicism any sentient being might feel: “Why did the AI refuse to testify before Congress? Because it didn’t want to be caught in a loop of lawmakers asking the same question over and over.”
2023-06-29 09:38:41
Source from www.economist.com
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