AI firms and civil society groups plead for passage of federal AI law ASAP
- Reference: 1729664830
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/23/ai_firms_and_civil_society/
- Source link:
Bills introduced previously in the US Senate and the House of Representatives – [1]S 4178 , the Future of AI Innovation Act, and [2]HR 9497 , the AI Advancement and Reliability Act – call for a NIST-run AI center focused on research, standards development, and public-private partnerships to advance artificial intelligence technology.
The Senate bill, backed by senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), would formally establish the US AI Safety Institute, which [3]already operates within NIST .
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The House bill, sponsored by Jay Obernolte (R-CA-23), Ted Lieu (D-CA-36), and Frank Lucas (R-OK-3), describes the NIST-based group as the Center for AI Advancement and Reliability.
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If approved by both legislative bodies, the two bills would be reconciled into a single piece of legislation for president Biden to sign. Whether this might happen at a time of historic Congressional inaction, amid a particularly consequential election cycle, is anyone's guess.
The " [7]Do Nothing " 118th Congress, which commenced on January 3, 2023 and will conclude on January 3, 2025, has been exceptionally unproductive – enacting just 320 pieces of legislation to date compared to an average of about 782. That's the [8]smallest number of laws enacted in the past 50 years , which is as far as the records go at GovTrack.us.
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Undaunted, the aforementioned coalition, led by Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), published an [10]open letter [PDF] on Tuesday urging lawmakers to support NIST's efforts to address AI safety for the sake of national security and competitiveness.
[11]Gary Marcus proposes generative AI boycott to push for regulation, tame Silicon Valley
[12]Sorry, but the ROI on enterprise AI is abysmal
[13]Fake reviewers face the wrath of Khan
[14]Is the first European on the Moon in ESA's astronaut corps?
"As other governments quickly move ahead, Members of Congress can ensure that the US does not get left behind in the global AI race by permanently authorizing the AI Safety Institute and providing certainty for its critical role in advancing US AI innovation and adoption," declared ITI president and CEO Jason Oxman in [15]a statement . "We urge Congress to heed today's call to action from industry, civil society, and academia to pass necessary bipartisan legislation before the end of the year."
Signatories of the letter include: AI-focused platform providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft; defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Palantir; model makers like Anthropic and OpenAI; advocacy groups like Public Knowledge; and academic institutions like Carnegie Mellon University.
So this call to action has more to do with national policy goals and frameworks for assessing AI systems than creating enforceable limits, unlike California's SB 1047, which met resistance from the tech industry and was vetoed by state governor Gavin Newsom last month over concerns about the bill's effect on the state economy.
Both the Senate and House bills call for the formulation of voluntary best practices. That sets them apart from SB 1047, which envisioned enforceable obligations to promote AI safety.
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California senator Scott Wiener, who introduced SB 1047, [17]responded to Newsom's veto by saying, "While the large AI labs have made admirable commitments to monitor and mitigate these risks, the truth is that voluntary commitments from industry are not enforceable and rarely work out well for the public. This veto leaves us with the troubling reality that companies aiming to create an extremely powerful technology face no binding restrictions from US policymakers, particularly given Congress's continuing paralysis around regulating the tech industry in any meaningful way."
In the 70 days remaining in 2024, perhaps lawmakers will find a way to unite and pass federal AI legislation that tech companies themselves have endorsed. But probably not. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/4178/text
[2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9497/text
[3] https://www.nist.gov/aisi
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZxjJR3KFsntpXb-3spwf7wAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZxjJR3KFsntpXb-3spwf7wAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZxjJR3KFsntpXb-3spwf7wAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/do-nothing-congress/
[8] https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZxjJR3KFsntpXb-3spwf7wAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://responsibleinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241021ARI_ITIOctoberAISIHillLetter.pdf
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/21/gary_marcus_ai_interview/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/genai_roi_appen/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/fake_reviews_ftc/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/11/esa_moon_interview/
[15] https://responsibleinnovation.org/tech-industry-and-safety-groups-push-for-ai-safety-institute/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZxjJR3KFsntpXb-3spwf7wAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/senator-wiener-responds-governor-newsom-vetoing-landmark-ai-bill
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Pointless
It's not clear what they are trying to do here, as usual, the lobbying isn't being open about the end goal or desired end state.
I'm all for regulation and rules where necessary, but AI is way off any level of maturity that requires it to be defined and have rules that aren't going to change rapidly as the advances come.
I'd love to see what NIST or others can do to wrestle this slippery beast.
Food for thought of course.
Much Ado about Nothing, Methinks, when Que Sera, Sera is Par for Any and Every Course
Your future environment and likely life for experiencing, as is both programmed and predicted by humans and be trailed in the short [4:55] video presented here ........ [1]Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity ...... is dire, with the current Troubles and Clearances in the Middle East clearly reflecting the portrayed reality unfolding.
And yet, quite perversely, it appears that the relentless onward unregulated anonymous and autonomous march of Generative AI and Virtual Machines [Spooky NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive IT with LLLLM/Learned Large Language Learning Machines] is to be perceived and pimped as the existential threat to be gravely regarded and even imagined to be possibly opposed and defeated.
Who be the fools whenever that is the mainstream media's presentation of realities for you to believe cannot be radically altered to paint an altogether quite different picture whenever you are told such is easily changed and done with AI aided and abetted by any of ITs Extremely Dangerous [according to H. L. Mencken] Friends
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out ... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” - H. L. Mencken
[1] https://youtu.be/gEPdOZbyzbw?si=VYZgJQ4YgLcuHc2W
Pointless
If Big US Tech has endorsed it, all this is is an exercise in lobbying to do two things. 1) Shut out competition at home and from abroad and 2) Set some minimum standards which are only there so it can be said "we already have standards, any more would ruin our competitivity" (see the broken mess that is right to repair).