The only member of Congress with an advanced degree in artificial intelligence says lawmakers should move slowly to impose new regulations on AI, in part because policymakers and even experts in the field have yet to lay out clear regulatory objectives.
Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., says this deliberate approach is a good thing, despite pressure from high-profile tech leaders to halt AI development until its dangers are better understood. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Obernolte said it makes no sense to start regulating until Congress knows precisely what dangers it’s trying to avoid.
“Before we can create a regulatory framework around AI, we have to very explicit about what our goals are with our regulation,” Obernolte said. “In other words, what kind of bad behavior and bad outcomes are we trying to prevent? What are we afraid might happen?”
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Rep. Jay Obernolte says Congress needs a better sense of why it is regulating AI before it takes action. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Obernolte likely has the most informed take on the challenges AI poses to society among all members of Congress – he is vice chair of the House AI Caucus, has a master’s in AI from UCLA and owns a video game development studio. Obernolte warns there is a massive gulf between the dire predictions about AI sent last week by tech luminaries such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and what lawmakers in Congress should be doing about it.
The tech letter from last week warned about advanced AI that would automate away “all the jobs,” “outsmart” its human masters and lead to “loss of control of our civilization,” and said AI developers must show these risks are “manageable.” In the months leading up to the letter, Musk has been warning that AI is being used to program systems like ChatGPT to avoid controversial answers, which Musk has said marks the dangerous development of “woke” AI.
“We’re just kind of shifting responsibility from the legislative branch to the executive branch at that point. What makes us think that a bureaucracy could do a better job in thinking about these issues given how… theoretical and poorly defined they are?”
But Obernolte said the broad warnings in the tech letter aren’t specific enough to be actionable.
“If you read the letter, you get the definite sense that we’re not there yet,” Obernolte said about its lack of…
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