Most broadly, we’re prone to see the methods that emerged final 12 months proceed, broaden, and start to be carried out. For instance, following President Biden’s government order, varied US authorities companies could define new greatest 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 received’t be seamless, and there’s sure to be lots of dialogue about how these new legal guidelines and insurance policies truly work in follow.
Whereas penning this piece, I took a while to mirror on how we bought right here. I feel tales about applied sciences’ rise are worthy of reflective examination—they may 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 automobiles, or another fast-developing, world-changing innovation. The tech often strikes a lot quicker than regulation, with lawmakers more and more challenged to remain in control with the know-how itself whereas devising new methods to craft sustainable, future-proof legal guidelines.
In serious about the US particularly, I’m unsure what we’re experiencing to this point is unprecedented, although definitely the pace with which generative AI has launched into our lives has been shocking. Final 12 months, AI coverage was marked by Large 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 when it comes to coverage, however I’ve damaged down what it’s good to know into 4 takeaways.
1. The US isn’t planning on placing the screws to Large Tech. However lawmakers do plan to interact the AI trade.
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 non-public dinners and testified in regards to the existential threats his personal know-how might pose to humanity. In lots of methods, this set the tone for a 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 checklist for these AI perception boards skewed closely towards trade.)
As US lawmakers started to essentially tackle AI, it grew to become a uncommon (if small) space of bipartisanship on the Hill, with legislators from each events calling for extra guardrails across the tech. On the similar 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 trade, with an emphasis on greatest practices, a reliance on completely different companies to craft their very own guidelines, and a nuanced strategy of regulating every sector of the economic system otherwise.” The fruits of all this was Biden’s government order on the finish of October, which outlined a distributed strategy to AI coverage, wherein completely different companies craft their very own guidelines. It (maybe unsurprisingly) will rely fairly closely on buy-in from AI firms.