AI laws and regulations remain a hot button issue in Washington, D.C. At ACA, discussions continue on the benefits of the technology, feedback on regulatory guidance and how AI is shaping the ARM industry.
08/21/2023 1:00 P.M.
3 minute read
Proposals are coming in from all sides withthe goal maximize the use and benefits of artificial intelligence while mitigating risks through regulation and legislation.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law reviewed just that in a July hearing, “Oversight of AI: Principles for Regulation.”
The witness panel included:
- Stuart Russell, professor of Computer Science, The University of California, Berkley.
- Yoshua Bengio, founder and Scientific Director of Mila – Quebec AI Institute.
- Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic, an AI safety and research company.
During the hearing, Chair Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he is interested in more information about the potential rules to establish a licensing program for companies engaged in high-risk AI development, according to a summary from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP.
Ranking Member U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., shared that Congress failed when developing laws to regulate social media, and the same cannot happen with AI.
The No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act is a bipartisan proposal to ensure consumers can prove their rights, interests, privacy and data protections in court, Hawley explained.
Additionally, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the U.S. should create guardrails for AI instead of leaving it to the rest of the word to set standards.
Key themes in the hearing included election security, the short- and long-term risks of AI models, international concerns and regulatory solutions.
Regarding regulations, the subcommittee discussed how the U.S. can be a leader in AI programs while ensuring consumers’ privacy is protected. In response, Russell said companies with AI systems using data from conversations would need disclosure requirements and a regulatory agency dedicated to AI.
The subcommittee and others in Congress will continue to review issues on AI regulations and development as consideration of legislation on AI advances.
For example, a bipartisan proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives would create a national commission to study AI technology and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has proposed a regulatory framework, ACA International previously reported.
The commission would recommend “regulatory and enforcement actions” to Congress.
Schumer’s proposal, the Security, Accountability, Foundations, Explain (SAFE) Innovation framework (PDF), presents steps to “protect, expand, and harness AI’s potential.”
“These policy objectives are at the center of my work on AI, but this is not a comprehensive list of the multitude of opportunities and challenges we face. To address the spectrum of AI topics, I have convened an all-hands-on-deck effort in the Senate, with committees developing bipartisan legislation, and a bipartisan gang of non-committee chairs working to further develop the Senate’s policy response,” Schumer said. “We must approach AI with the urgency and humility it deserves.”
On the regulatory side, several federal agencies have released a policy statement on the use of artificial intelligence products under existing laws, particularly to ensure that consumers aren’t discriminated against by the algorithms companies use for loans or other financial products, ACA previously reported.
In addition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission participated in the interagency statement (PDF).
After reading the statement, Heath Morgan, partner at Golden Martin Lyons Watts Morgan PLLC, noted the agencies’ focus on enforcement and consumer protections may be misdirected.
Morgan recently presented a webinar for members on generative AI, robotic process automation (RPA), large language models and their intersection with surveillance capitalism, and what it means for the collections industry, available here.
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