On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined his blueprint to start Congress moving in the direction of comprehensive AI legislation, albeit the specifics of such legislation remain unclear.
The majority leader has announced a “major effort” to draught federal regulations for artificial intelligence, and his “SAFE Innovation framework” expands on this. Schumer’s office claims that the acronym stands for the four of the five principles that guide his legislative approach to the rapidly evolving technology: security, accountability, foundations, and explanation.
The new approach was introduced by Schumer during a lecture at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “Many want to ignore AI because it’s so complex,” he said. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, we can’t play ostrich and bury our heads in the sand.
Schumer believes that comprehensive AI legislation will ensure the safety of the United States’ national security and the jobs of its citizens, promote responsible systems in the areas of false information, bias, copyright, liability, and intellectual property, ensure that AI tools are in line with democratic values, and establish the minimum level of transparency that the federal government and private citizens can expect from AI companies.
The fifth tenet, creativity, expands on the major party leader’s call to “support U.S.-led innovation in AI technologies.” Legislators are debating whether or not to invest in computational infrastructure and research initiatives that have the potential to boost productivity and give American AI companies an edge over their international competitors.
“Innovation must be our North Star,” Schumer remarked on Wednesday. “But if people think AI innovation is not done safely, if there are not adequate guardrails in place… that will stifle or even halt innovation altogether.”
Schumer also stated his intent to begin hosting “AI Insight Forums” beginning this upcoming autumn. Experts in the field of artificial intelligence would be tasked with advising lawmakers on a wide range of issues, including the workforce, national security, privacy, explainability, and “doomsday scenarios.”
According to Schumer, the goal of the forums is to “shake Congress free” from the tedious committee process in order to control the rapidly developing technology.
The lack of legislative precedent on this topic necessitates a fresh approach, Schumer argued. Later, the majority leader warned that lawmakers would not be able to come up with the proper policies if they followed “the typical path” of holding congressional hearings with opening comments and each member asking questions for five minutes at a time, often on separate themes.
However, September is when the forums are slated to go live. Congress may have a little window of opportunity to work together on big legislation before the next presidential election, and that’s if they can overcome a significant knowledge gap.
At the end of his address, during the Q&A session, Schumer noted that his office had looked into the European Union’s AI Act and other international efforts to regulate the industry and found that none of them “have really captured the imagination of the world.”
Schumer added, “Our goal is to come up with an American proposal,” referring to the United States as “the largest economy in the world, the innovative leader in the world, the intellectual leader in the world.” The majority of nations, he said, would prefer a unified framework within which AI might be governed.
Schumer has stated that the rest of the world will join in “if we can put this together in a very serious way.”
Schumer has stated that any broad AI legislation must have bipartisan support. He spoke highly of ongoing efforts to forge an alliance with Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), but warned that the road ahead is still difficult.
“No question about it: This is all exceedingly ambitious,” Schumer said on Wednesday. As we move forward, we must maintain a sense of modesty. We are committed to crafting all-encompassing legislation.
