Tech leaders are in a private Senate meeting

AI Insight: Why AI is important, and why AI needs more public hearings? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X’s Musk addressed a tech forum on innovation and safety

Tech leaders called for regulation that balances innovation and safety as the Senate conducted one of the many “insight forums” to inform potential rulemaking.

Today, the Senate is holding a first-of-its-kind, closed-door forum led by the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerman, and more than 17 others. For six hours, the nation’s elected leaders get muzzled, even though they will be on the senators’ turf.

Policymakers, academics, civil society and industry should work together to minimize the risks of this new technology but also maximize the benefits, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “If you believe this generation of AI tools is a meaningful step forward, then it’s important not to undervalue the potential upside.”

Meta builds safeguards into its generative AI models and is deliberate about how to roll out AI-powered products. But the company also believes powerful AI models are “going to be an increasingly important driver of opportunity in the future,” Zuckerberg said.

On the other hand, X’s Musk, who started an AI company recently, told reporters outside the forum that the government needs a federal AI oversight agency.

The New York Times reports several tech leaders remarked on the importance of regulating the technology, with OpenAI’s Altman saying he believes policymakers want “to do the right thing” and is impressed with how fast the government wants to create rules around the technology.

Schumer, who previously called on peers to “pick up the pace” around AI regulation, said the forum was important to understand more of the technology and told reporters after the forum that the US cannot rush rulemaking.

Tech companies were happy to speak behind closed doors but others were worried about the private nature of the forum. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) criticized the forum, saying it was a way for tech giants to influence policies.

According to the Dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at the Carnegie-Melvin University, otherAI Insight forums have to be public.

“We need more public hearings so we have more transparency into how the regulations are being crafted,” Krishnan said. “I hope other forums are open to the public.”

Other lawmakers, including Warren and Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA), also sent a letter to large AI companies, demanding answers about the working conditions of the human workers who help train and moderate AI models.

Artificial intelligence is a tool the political class uses to perpetuate its hyperpartisan ways, which is why senators want the titans of Silicon Valley to fix a Senate problem.

The format will not allow for senators to ask questions of the speakers but they are encouraged to listen to the discussion.

Deep Fakes: Why People Don’t Believe in Results and How They’ve Been Caused by the Technological Advances in the 21st Century

“The government is, in my opinion, based on a belief in process over a result—that if the process is equitable, we’ll live with the results, whether you agree with it or not,” says Dan Mintz, chair of the Department of Information Technology at the University of Maryland Global Campus. People don’t believe in the results and they don’t believe in the process.

Many politicians haven’t gotten the post-fact memo which is why most legislators are applauding the new transparency rule that will be enforced by the internet giant.

“It’s a real concern. We have to have a way for folks to easily verify that what they’re seeing is reality,” says Michigan senator Gary Peters, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Is it possible that new technology will do what politicians have failed to do in restoring faith in the American political system? It is doubtful. Americans—with unseen assistance from the algorithms that now run our digital lives—increasingly live in different political universes. A majority of Republicans think that Joe Biden lost in 2020 while a majority think news outlets intentionally publish lies. Democrats think that Donald Trump is guilty of interfering with the 2020 election.

The ability to move people is becoming more difficult as we believe that facts are changeable. Mintz says that the problem of deepfakes is not that it’s going to have a direct impact on the election, it’s that it’s going to have an even greater effect on decreasing faith in institutions.