The House of Representatives has founded a Task Force on artificial intelligence that can “ensure America continues leading on this strategic area,” as Speaker Mike Johnson put it. However the announcement feels more like a punt after years of indecision that show no sign of ending.
In a way this task force — chaired by California Reps Ted Lieu and Jay Obernolte — is a welcome sign of Congress doing something, anything, on a very important topic that has change into the darling of tech investment. But in one other, more vital way, it comes off as lip service at a time many feel AI and tech are running circles around regulators and lawmakers.
Moreover, the dispiriting partisanship and obstruction on display on daily basis in Congress renders quaint any notion that this task force would produce anything of value at any time, let alone during a historically divisive election 12 months.
“As latest innovations in AI proceed to emerge, Congress and our partners in federal government must sustain. House Republicans and Democrats will work together to create a comprehensive report detailing the regulatory standards and congressional actions needed to each protect consumers and foster continued investment and innovation in AI,” said Rep. Obernolte within the announcement.
And Rep. Lieu: “AI has the aptitude of adjusting our lives as we comprehend it. The query is ensure AI advantages society as a substitute of harming us. As a recovering Computer Science major, I do know this can not be a simple or quick or one-time task, but I consider Congress has an important role to play in the longer term of AI. I actually have been heartened to see so many Members of Congress of all political persuasions agree.”
After all, the White House, quite a few agencies, the E.U., and countless other authorities and organizations are already issuing “comprehensive reports” and recommending legislative actions, but what’s another?
It seems as if Congress realized that it was the last substantive entity to act on this industry-reshaping force, and so Representatives reached across the aisle to pat one another on the back for taking the smallest possible step towards future laws.
But at the identical time, with Congress dysfunctional (having passed a historically low variety of bills) and all eyes on the 2024 Presidential election, this task force is only a way of kicking the can down the road until they know what they’ll get away with under the approaching administration.
Definitely studying AI and its risks and advantages will not be a foul thing — however it’s a bit late within the day to be announcing it. This task force is long overdue, and as such we may welcome it but in addition treat it with the identical skepticism that lawmakers pandering deserves.
Everyone involved with this can point to it when asked why they haven’t acted on AI, which many citizens fear is coming for his or her jobs or automating processes that after had a purposeful human touch. “But we began this task force!” Yes, and the E.U. has had their task force working on this subject because the pandemic days.
The announcement of the duty force kept expectations low, with no timeline or deliverables that voters or watchdogs can hold them to. Even the report is something they are going to only “seek” to supply!
Moreover, considering the expert agencies are liable to declawing via Supreme Court decision, it is tough to even imagine what a regulatory structure would appear like a 12 months from now. Want the FTC, FCC, SEC, EPA, or anyone else to assist out? They could be judicially restrained from doing so come 2025.
Perhaps this task force is Congress’s admission that in such a tumultuous times, and lacking any real insight into a problem, all they’ll do is say “we’ll look into it.”
