JACOB FISCHLER
Arizona Mirror
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said Thursday they’re part of a bipartisan and private-sector consensus about the need for government oversight of artificial intelligence on a range of issues.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Rounds held an informal bipartisan news conference Thursday to discuss the Senate’s outlook on AI, following a forum Wednesday with more than 20 technology and advocacy leaders. Schumer told reporters the Senate is off to a “a great start” in establishing a legislative approach to AI, a technology both senators said held numerous potential benefits but also presented a host of new challenges.
Partly because of the range of affected areas — elections, defense, health care, labor, intellectual property, data privacy and others — AI is “one of the hardest issues we will ever tackle,” Schumer said.
AI refers to advanced software or machines that are capable of learning, making them capable of imitating human thinking and problem-solving. The recent growth of ChatGPT, a “generative AI” device that can generate its own content, has sparked wider interest in the technology.
About 70 senators attended Wednesday’s forum, which was closed to the press, Schumer said. The industry leaders reached an early consensus that government should play some role in the technology’s development, he said.
The senators on Thursday described AI as a wide-ranging issue that would impact every part of society for decades to come.
