Internet connection is something no one can live without soul i always there for our customers with speed, reliability, value and stress. Now more than ever it all starts with grace internet. Well supports cspan as a public servicewith these other Television Providers give you a front row seat to democracy. Majority leader Chuck Schumer urged congress to implement regulations on Artificial Intelligence. Leadership said failure means Ai Technology would go unchecked and could harm the nations security. The center for Strategic International studies at washington dc posted this discussion is about 40 minutes. Can you hear me . So welcome to see sis, thank you for coming and we are a Bipartisan National Security think tank and thats why senator schumer chose see sis for this speech. Its an honor and pleasure to introduce editorschumer. I dont know most of the senators resume that id like to go through some quick background. My background with senator schumer is he is both a thinker and doer and that makes him a bit of a real person in most rules. At this moment Artificial Intelligence and its characteristics may well be missioncritical. In order to be a modern economy, we must have innovation driving both the creation and adoption of technology. Our economy is going to depend on it. Our Economic Growth and our National Security. Will depend on the dynamism of innovation in the private sector. You know that what senator schumer had the chance act but you may not know what he did for quantum computing so let me tell you another story. In prepandemic times we had a small private center here at csis. They were building up an effort for quantumcomputing. Editor schumer attended the dinner and listens carefully and he listened not only to what they had to say about their needs but also asked why. Senator, that seed hasgrown. We subsequently created the National QuantumInitiative Team became the five centers of excellence the us you know that part of what you may not know is the most recent center, ibm and google announced hundred 50,000 for a partnership between that team and Tokyo University events that seem quantum computing. We now see an example of the government for private capital to partner with the University World to further innovation. Businesses example of a prominent way for american innovation, in our Hightech Industries the government should purge this unique american strength in a much wider and more systematic way. The foundation of our real National Security is the dynamism of our economy, creativity in our Research Institute and quality of our education is more importantly the ability it instills in our private sector we dont encourage these growth mindsets playing defense. Today were here to talk about Artificial Intelligence and ive been at two conferences that focus on the topic. The first was the conference organized caltech and university ofchicago around the use of ai or science. The participants were from Major Research universities and others around the country. In that room the participants were powerfully excited about the benefits to society that would come from Artificial Intelligence more recently i was at a conference around the topic of ai. I. Those are the guys who who to make money off of this. In that room you were seeing the participants were powerfully concerned about the future of what we were going into. The problem is navigating this is one of the great challenges and opportunities facing the united states. Youve seen the chips act. Youve now heard about the senators engagement with quantum computing. What the center is to talk about today is the growth of Artificial Intelligence which may be one of the greatest challenges we face for decades to come so center, and you very much for doing this. [applause] thank you tom for that kind introduction and thank you csis. Its great to be here and pleasure to be in a room with so many leaders from innovation and tech, labor, civil rights. They come together at a moments of evolution. Not of weapons or political power but a revolution of science and understanding en that will change humanity. Its been said what the flow of electricity did for Human Potential 100 years ago is what Artificial Intelligence is doing now. But ai fx will occur over a moment much shorter period. The idea of ai is not new. Supercomputers have long been with us in movies and Science Fiction now what once lived only in our imaginations lives in our daytoday life. Thanks to remarkable innovation in Computing Power semi conductors and the size of our datafields like Machine Learning , we can say with confidence that the age of ai is here and it is here to stay. And were still just at the beginning. Some experts predict just a few years the world will be fully unrecognizable from the world we live in today. Thats what ai is, its the world to be. Change blistering speed they seem frightening to some but ai promises to transform life for the better in shape how we fight disease, tackle hunger, manage our lives, enrich our minds. But theres real dangers to misinformation at a new age of weapons and the risk of being unable to manage this technology healtogether. We have no choice but to knowledge ais changes are coming in in many cases are already here. We ignore them at our peril. Its complex but with ai we cannot be sticking our heads in the sand. The question is what role does congress and federal government have in this new revolution. Are we capable of playing a proactive role promoting ai growth . Can Congress Works to maximize ais while protecting the American People and all of humanity from its novel risks . I think the answer to these questions is in fact yes. It must be because if government doesnt step in, who will fill this place individuals in the private sector can do for our country may have good intentions, there will always be road foreign adversaries that will seek to harm us. Must join the a. I. E revolution, and we need your help. A. I. s unlike Anything Congress has dealt with before. Its not like labor or health care or defense where congress has had a long history we can work off of. Experts arent even sure which questions with policymakers should be asking. In many ways were starting from scratch. But i believe congress is up to the challenge. The last two years in congress have been the most successful of the last 30 years. Historic infrastructure legislation, the chips and science bill which tom referred to, the American Rescue plan and the largest Clean Energy Package ever. Most of these were done with bipartisan support under my leadership as majority leader. So dont count congress out. I know many of you have spent months calling on us to a act. I hear you. I hear you loud and clear. And many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle hear you loud and clear as well. Sod to so today i want to outline a twopart proposal to move us forward on a. I. One part on framework, one part on process. First, Congress Needs a framework for action. What should our framework be. What issues within a. I. Should we look at to prepare legislation . After months of talk with over a hundred a. I. Developers, executives, scientists, researchers, work force experts, advocates, this morning id like to the share my proposed framework forre action. I call it the safe innovation framework for a. I. Policy. Safe innovation framework. I call it that because innovation must be ourur north star. I call it that because the u. S. Has always been a leader in innovating on the greatest technologies that shape the modern world. But if people think a. I. Innovation is not done safely, if there are not adequate guardrails in place, it will stifle or even halt innovation altogether. So it is safe innovation we must seek. Second, congress will also need to invent a new process to develop the right policies to implement our framework. A. I. Moves so quickly and changes at near exponential speed,es and theres such little legislative history on this issue, so a new process is called for. The traditional approach of Committee Hearings play an essential role. But wont on their own suffice. We will need help from creators, innovators and experts in the field. That is why later this year i will invite top a. I. Experts to come to congress and convene a series of firstever a. I. Insight forums for a new and unique approach to developing a. I. Legislation. Ill talk a little bit about these forms in a forums in a moment, but lets return to the framework first. Let me repeat, our framework must never lose sight of what must be our north star, innovation. Americans by nature are a country of innovators. We produced over 590,000 Patent Applications in 2021, and 60 of the top 100 companies by market cap are american. It was america that revolutionized the automobile. We were the first to to split the atom, to land on the moon, to unleash the internet and create the microchip that made a. I. Possible. A. I. Could be our most spectacular innovation yet, a force that could ignite a new era of technological advancement, scientific discovery and industrial might. So we must come up with a plan that encourages, not stifles, innovation in this new world of a. I. Andhi that means asking some vey important questions. One, what is the proper balance between collaboration and Competition Among entities developing a. I. . Two, how much federal intervention on the tax side and on the spending side must there be if . Is federal intervention to encourage innovation necessary at all, or should we just let the private sector develop on its own in three, what is the proper balance between private a. I. Systems and open a. I. Systems . And finally, how do we insure innovation and competition is open to everyone, not just a few big, powerful companies. The government must play a role insuring open, free and fair competition. In short, the first issue we must tackle is encouraging, not stifling, innovation. But if people dont think innovation can be done safely, that will slow a. I. S Development and prevent us from moving forward. So my safe innovation framework calls for security, accountability, protecting our foundations and, lastly, explainability. The last being one of the most important and most difficult technical issues in all of a. I. First comes security for our country, for American Leadership and for our work force. We dole not know what Artificial Intelligence will be k capable f 2 years from now, 50 years from now, n 100 years from now in the hands of foreign adversaries, especially i autocracies, or domestic, rogue groups interested in extortionist financial gain or political upheaval. The dangers of a. I. Could be extreme. We need to do everything we can to instill guardrails that make sure these groups cannot use our advances in a. I. For illicit and bad purpose. But we also need security for americas work force because a. I. , particularly generative a. I. , is already disrupting the way tens of millions of people make a living. At greatest risk are those who live paycheck to the pay check, displacing millions of low income workers, many from communities of color. Trucking, manufacturing, Energy Production could be next. And rest assured, those with College Educations and advanced degrees will be are impacted to. A. I. Will shape and reshape the knowledge economy impacting workers in sales and marketing, coding, software development, wanging law banking, law, other skilled professions. Many assumed these jobs would always be safe, but that is not the case. The erosion of the middle class, already one of americas most serious problems, could get much worse with a. I. If we ignore it and dont take measures to prevent job loss or maldistribution of income. Globalization is a good cautionary tale. Many heralded it as a turning point for prosperity and growth. Decades later most people agree globalization, on balance, increased wealth. But at the cost of tens of millions of jobs. Shipped overseas. While some communities flourished, others were hollowed out and remain so to this day. Congress was far too slow to aid americans wholo needed help with these changes. Lets not repeat the same mistakes when it comes to a. I. To prevent that from happening, we will need everyone, everyone at the table; workers, businesses, t educators, researchers. This is going to be a huge challenge. And ask all of us and all of us, all of us must be part of the solution. A. I. Policies must also promote accountability, otherwise what will stop companies from using a. I. Too track our kids movements, inundate them with harmful advertisements, damage their selfimage or their Mental Health . Whats to to stop a shady business from using a. I. To exploit people with addictions or financial problems or serious Mental Illnesses . How do we make sure a. I. Isnt used to exploit workers or encourage racial bias in hiring . And how can we protect the ip, the intellectual property, of our innovators, our content creators, our musicians, our writers, our artists . Their ideas are their livelihoods. When someone uses another person or another companys ip, we need accountability to insure that they get their due credit and compensation. Without guardrails in place regulating how a. I. Is developed, audited, deployed and without making clear that certain practices should be out ofin bounds, we risk living in a total freeforall which nobody wants. Nor do we want a future where a. I. Eats away at americas foundations. On its own, a. I. Neither supports nor opposes the causes of liberty, civil rights, justice. If we dont program these algorithms to align with our values, they could be used to undermine our democratic foundations, especially our electoral processes. If we dont set the norms for a. I. s proper uses, others will. The Chinese Communist party which has little regard for the norms of democratic governance couldrm leap ahead of us and set the rules for the game for a. I. Democracy could enter an era of steep decline. And theres a more immediate problem. A. I. Could be used to jaundice and even totally discredit our elections as early as next year. We could soon live in a world where political campaigns regularly deploy fabricated yet totally believable and convincing images and footage of democratic or republican i candidates distorting their statements, greatly harming their election chances. Chatbots can now be deployed at aox massive scale to to target millions of individual voters for political persuasion. And oncee the damaging information is sent p to 100 million homes, its hard to put the genie back in the bottle. What if foreign interests, adversaries embrace this technology to interfere in our elections . This is not about imposing one viewpoint, but its about ensuring people can engage in democracy without outside interference. This is one of the reasons we must move quickly. We should develop the guardrails that align with democracy and encourage the nations of the world to use them. Without taking steps to make sure a. I. Preserves our countrysg foundations, we risk the survival of our dem crass. Democracy. Finally, explainability. One of the thorniest and most technically complicated issues we face, but perhaps the most important of all. Explain ability is about transparency. When you ask an a. I. System a question and it gives you an answer, perhaps the answer you werent expecting, you want to know where the answer came from. You should be able to ask, why did a. I. Choose the answer over some other answer that also could have been a possibility . And it should be done in a simple way so all users can understand how these systems come up with answers. Congress should make a top priority, and companies and experts must take the lead in helping us solve this very important problem. Because without explainability, we may not be able to the move forward. If the user of an a. I. System cannot determine the source of the sentence or the paragraph or the idea and cant get some give some explanation of why it was chosen over other possibilities, then we may not be able to accomplish our other goals of accountability, security, foundation. Explainability is, thus, perhaps the greatest challenge we face on a. I. Even the experts dont always know why these algorithms produce the answers they do. Its often a black box. No everyday user of a. I. Will understand the complicated and revolving algorithms that determine what a. I. Systems produce in response to a question or a task. And, of course, these algorithms represent the highest level of intellectual property for a. I. Developers, forcing companies to reveal their ip would be harmful, it would stifle innovation, empower our add verm for ill. But fortunately, the average person does not need to know the inner workings of these algorithms. But with we do, we do need to require companies to develop a system where the in simple and understandable terms users understand why the system produced the particular answer and where that answer came from. This is very complicated but very important. And here we will need the ingenuity of the experts and companies to come up with a fair solution that that u congress cn use to break open a. I. s black box with. Innovation first but with security, accountability, foundations and explainability. These areex the principles thati believe will ensure that a. I. Innovation is safe and responsible and has the appropriate guardrails. If we proceed with these priorities in mind, i think congress can help ensure that a. I. Works for i humanitys good. I think we can go a long way towards keeping people safe. Now, let me share my second proposal, a new legislative approach for translating this framework intosl legislative alaska. Later this fall i legislative action. It will convene the top minds for a series of a. I. Insight forums to lay down a new foundation for a. I. Policy. We need the best of the best sitting atd the table. The top a. I. Developers, executives, scientists, advocates, community leaders, workers, National Security experts all together in one room doing years of work if in a matter of months. The panel will include people of differing views including some skeptics. We want the experts in each subject where we have questions and problems to sit around a table, debate the major challenges and forge consensus about the way to go. Opposing views will be welcome, evene encouraged, because this issue is so new that all ideas must get a chance to be at the table. Our job as legislators will be to listen to the experts and learn as much as we can so we can translate these ideas into legislative action. Each Insight Forum will focus on the biggest issues in a. I. Including, first, asking the right questions. A. I. Innovation, copyright and ip, use cases and risk management, work force. National security, guarding against doomsday can e scenarios, a. I. s role in our social world, transparency, explainability and alignment and privacy and liability. These Insight Forums are the first of their kind. They have to be the first of their kind, because a. I. Moves so quickly, will change our world so dramatically, is deeper in its complexity and lacks the legislative history in congress that other issues have. If we take the typical path can Holding Congressional hearings with Opening Statements and each member asking questions five minutes at a time on differentt issues we simply wont be able to come up with the right policies. By the time we act, a. I. Will have i evolved into something new. This will not do. A new approach is required. Now, these a. I. Forums cant and wont replace the activity already happening in congress on a. I. Our committees must continue to be the key drivers of congress a. I. Policy response, continue to hold hearings and build bipartisan consensus. But hearings wont be enough. We need an alloftheabove approach, because thats what. A. I. s complexity and speed demands. And this must be done on a bipartisan basis. A. I. Is one issue that must lie outside the typical partisan fights of congress. The changes a. I. Will bring will not discriminate between left or right ordi center. It will come for all of us and, thus, demands attention from all of us. To deepen the spirit of bipartisanship, ive established a group of senators to lead on this issue, senators heinrich, young, rounds and myself. I thank my colleagues for their work, and and i reiterate while this is my framework and my vision for congressional action, i hope the same spirit of collaboration that weve seen so farme will propel us forward in the months ahead. Of course, well rely on our Committee Chairs once they hear from our forums to develop the right poems proposals. Chairman cantwell, peters, klobuchar, warner, durbin and the ranking republican members. Last weekk i asked each of the Committee Chairs to reach out across the aisle and together have the chair and Ranking Member identify and explore areas where we can get working. We also need the input of those senators who have spoken out on a. I. To join us, senators bennett and thune, blumenthal, blackburn, hawley, others. Now, no question about it, this is all exceedingly ambitious. We must exercise humility, humility as we proceed. Were going to work very hard to come up with comprehensive legislation because this is so important. Were going to do everything we can toev succeed. But success is not guaranteed. A. I. Is unlike anything weve dealt with before, and it may be exceedingly difficult for legislation to tackle every single issue. Again, humility is the key word. But even if we can find some solutions and create a degree of consensus to deal with some of a. I. s many challenges, we must, we must pursue it. And like many great undertakings in our nations history, we must move ahead with bipartisanship and cooperation. We must cast aside ideological hangups and political selfinterest. Thats the only way our efforts will succeed. In 1963, president kennedy said in frankfurt, germany, that, quote time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to the miss the future. What was true when john f. Kennedy spoke 60 years ago is even truer today. Change is the law of life, more so now than ever. Because of a. I. , change is happening to our world as we speak in ways both wondrous and startling. There are many who think were in over our heads. There are those who fear a. I. s immense power and conclude its better to turn back, to go no further down this unknown road. We all know its its not that simple and its not that easy. The a a. I. Revolution is going to to thehe happen with us to happen with us or without us. If we can promote innovation, make sure it is safe, if america leads the way, the future will be far better, brighter and safer than if it happens without us. I do not know of any other instance in Human History when we reach newed reached new heights, uncovereded new truthsr mastered new innovations only for us to turn back. Its in our nature to to press ahead. We are, as president Theodore Roosevelt said, thepr ones in te arena. So, friends, let us not turn back. Let us not look away. Instead, let us forge ahead, determined, unafraid to lay a foundation for the next era of human advancement. Thank you, everybody, can if i look forward to working with you on this effort very, very soon. [applause] [background sounds] [inaudible conversations] well, senator, thank you so much for being here at sis and for sharing in new innovation framework. This is a genuine landmark in the history of american politic, in technology, this really does touch on everything, and were with fortunate that you were willing to spend the time with us today explaining this. Well, and i thank you for csi sponsorship. Thank you. We have a brief amount of time to ask you some key questions about this initiative. Id be very curious to understand, you know, what was your process like . How did you develop the safe innovation framework thesome. Great. Thats aha great question. And, first, i think we realized the breadth, depth, almost enormity of the task ahead of us. So instead of plunging in with any preconceived ideas, we thought the first thing we ought to do is talk to a wide range of experts in the field and adjacent fields that are affected by a. I. And so we spoke to probably a hundred different groups of people, and we got their ideas, we got what their thinking was, we askedei them questions about the framework. And after we spoke to all of them, we felt confident enough id not with all the answers. T thats part of the forums were going to do. But that were asking the right questions. And we feel quite confident that the balance we have chosen, north star innovation but safe innovation so that the public doesnt just pull back and say lets forget about all of this, its too courageous, that doesnt happen. Toon dangerous. So we had, you know, we spoke to sowe many different people. But almost everyone we talked to when we told them that our framework is safe innovation really thought that was a good idea. And when you actually started the process of, you know, putting pen to paper, who did you work with to a actually develop this framework in addition to the litany of hundreds of groups . Well, thats who we worked with, and i have a great staff who is here. They spent so much time. The enthusiasm on our staff, humility but also enthusiasm, of getting this done and how hard it is getting it done but how important has carried us. Ive had discussions about a. I. With my staff probably every single day, and they knowing me, you know that includes saturdays and sundays. Ha so in this same room at css year ago we had the privilege of hosting a member of the european if parliament whos been the coauthor of the e. U. A. I. Act which is advancing. In addition to the e. U. A. I. Act, we have very interesting proposals going on in the united kingdom, countries like singapore, china, brazil. What do you think of these other international efforts,hi and how will they, how have they influenced your work . Well, weve looked at them, and we certainly are going to reach out the other countries as we go through this process. But i think that none of them have really captured the imagination of theav world. Some of them are negative, some of them have been withdrawn or modifieded already, and most of them were quite quick. So our goal is to come up with an american proposal dealing within the confines, if you will, of america, the united states. And we believe if its good enough, theli rest of the world will follow. After all, were the largest economy in the world, were the the innovative leader in the world, were the intellectual leader in the world. And most, not all, but most of the t world would like to see oe system. If we can put this together in a very serious way, i think the rest of the world will follow and we can set the direction of how we ought to go in a. I. Because i dont think any of the existing proposals have captured that imagination. So the framework that that you shared here today, the initiatives that youre launching today, how do they compare with, youch know, a. I. Regulation in more closed societies like china, for example . Well, you know, it makes our task harder, but itll be more successful when we complete it. And that is we have to include everybody, you know . I suppose in china president xi and a few others will decide whats needed. They say there should be a lot of facial recognition, if they say that, its done. Thats not going to happen here just byt who weve consulted, by the way weve set up these forums, Insight Forums. Its going, to be a very, very,a much broader group, and were going to have to pull a consensus together. Willsu that be easy . No. And there be some will there there be some areas maybe where there is no consensus . Yes, but that shouldnt stop us from pursuing areas where we can find con consensus. As one of the areas you touch toed on in your speech was the importance of the markets and elsewhere. How are you thinking about this issue ofre competition within te a. I. Industry and insuring that the technology is not just dominated by a small handful of companies . Its balance. On the one hand, you want innovation and, you know, Certain Companies be they large or small have that innovation, you dont want to stifle it. But on the other hand, you want to insure that many others get a chance at it. Thats one of the Great Questions we face. Some of it relates to open a. I. , but even without open a. I. , we have to decide those sort of guidelines. And i say its balance, but we certainly dont want a situation where two or three companies dominate and everyone else is closed out. Andnd then, you know, we hava lot ofut people asking what is e timeline for this legislation that you talked about. Oh, yes. And how they can be involved in moving this process forward. Okay, first question, the timeline. Were not going to set an artificial deadline, it has to be done by this date. But i would give you this, i would say this its not going to be days or weeks, but its not going to be years. Months would be the proper timeline that i would give you. Great. Well, every minute that we have the opportunity to enspend with senator schumer is to spend with senator schumer is truly precious, and his time is truly precious. So this is going to create the conclusion of this event. On behalf of csis, the center for a. I. And advanced technologies here, thank you so much great. Thank you. Thanks for coming, everybody. [applause] i do i didnt answer your final question. We need your help. How can people participate . We intend with it to be an open process, we intend through these fora to have different groups. Well have an opening one in september with some of the very leaders of the industry to the Start Talking about the Big Questions that have to be answered. But then i mentioned nine, there may be others, and were going to want more participation and input because many of you have expertise that we very much need. Great. And so if everyone could please remain seated while the senator exits to make it to his next meeting, thank you again. In. Thanks. [applause] [inaudible conversations] thank you everybody. Thanks for coming. [inaudible conversations] since 1979, in partnership with with the cable industry, cspan has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and and Senate Floors to congressional hearings, party briefings and committee meetings. Cspan gives you a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions and completely unfiltered. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. American history tv, saturdays on cspan2 the, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. At 6 p. M. Eastern, historians discuss conspiracy theories of modern history such as the deep state, new world order and qanon. They detail how conspiracies can reveal cultural insights and political fears for the time period. And at 9 30 p. M. 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