Most broadly, we’re more likely to see the methods that emerged final yr proceed, develop, and start to be carried out. For instance, following President Biden’s govt order, varied US authorities businesses might define new finest practices however empower AI firms to police themselves. And throughout the pond, firms and regulators will start to grapple with Europe’s AI Act and its risk-based strategy. It definitely gained’t be seamless, and there’s sure to be lots of dialogue about how these new legal guidelines and insurance policies really work in follow.
Whereas penning this piece, I took a while to replicate on how we received right here. I feel tales about applied sciences’ rise are worthy of reflective examination—they might help us higher perceive what would possibly occur subsequent. And as a reporter, I’ve seen patterns emerge in these tales over time—whether or not it is with blockchain, social media, self-driving vehicles, or another fast-developing, world-changing innovation. The tech normally strikes a lot sooner than regulation, with lawmakers more and more challenged to remain up to the mark with the expertise itself whereas devising new methods to craft sustainable, future-proof legal guidelines.
In fascinated about the US particularly, I’m unsure what we’re experiencing to date is unprecedented, although definitely the velocity with which generative AI has launched into our lives has been stunning. Final yr, AI coverage was marked by Massive Tech energy strikes, congressional upskilling and bipartisanship (a minimum of on this house!), geopolitical competitors, and speedy deployment of nascent applied sciences on the fly.
So what did we study? And what’s across the nook? There’s a lot to attempt to keep on high of by way of coverage, however I’ve damaged down what you’ll want to know into 4 takeaways.
1. The US isn’t planning on placing the screws to Massive Tech. However lawmakers do plan to interact the AI business.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, first began his tour de Congress final Could, six months after the bombshell launch of ChatGPT. He met with lawmakers at personal dinners and testified in regards to the existential threats his personal expertise might pose to humanity. In lots of methods, this set the tone for the way we’ve been speaking about AI within the US, and it was adopted by Biden’s speech on AI, congressional AI perception boards to assist lawmakers stand up to hurry, and the discharge of extra giant language fashions. (Notably, the visitor listing for these AI perception boards skewed closely towards business.)
As US lawmakers started to actually tackle AI, it turned a uncommon (if small) space of bipartisanship on the Hill, with legislators from each events calling for extra guardrails across the tech. On the identical time, exercise on the state stage and within the courts elevated, primarily round consumer protections like age verification and content material moderation.
As I wrote within the story, “By this exercise, a US taste of AI coverage started to emerge: one which’s pleasant to the AI business, with an emphasis on finest practices, a reliance on totally different businesses to craft their very own guidelines, and a nuanced strategy of regulating every sector of the financial system otherwise.” The fruits of all this was Biden’s govt order on the finish of October, which outlined a distributed strategy to AI coverage, wherein totally different businesses craft their very own guidelines. It (maybe unsurprisingly) will rely fairly closely on buy-in from AI firms.