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From inside the second gathering of the U.S. Senate’s forum on artificial intelligence on Tuesday, one of its participants left “encouraged.”
Evan Smith, chief executive of Altana Technologies, one of about 20 technology leaders, venture capitalists, academics and privacy experts in attendance for the three-and-a-half-hour summit, characterized the bipartisan AI Insight Forums as a responsible and constructive approach to balancing AI innovation with safety and security.
“The two categories of concern were the application of innovation genAI and its appropriate use without using data against people, and its impact on the labor market,” Smith said in an interview. “And the Senators were well read and well intentioned.”
Looming above the conversation, Smith said, was the threat of China — “How do we win?” in competition was often invoked, he said — and the need for a federal agency to govern AI.
“The tech people there thought [regulation] is a terrible idea,” Smith said.
The two dozen or so Senators who engaged in a roundtable conversation with tech experts expressed interest in how AI can be used to discover drugs for complex diseases as well as deep concern over a poll that shows more than 80% of Americans think AI development should be slowed.
An undercurrent at the discussion was an honest effort by federal lawmakers to avoid overlooking the impact of AI, as they did with social media. “They want to get ahead of potential problems with AI,” Smith said. “The experience of social media absolutely scarred everybody.”
Another meeting, the third in a series of forums, is likely to happen, Smith.
“We’re off to a good start,” he said.
