WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) – The White House on Tuesday briefed senators on artificial intelligence in a confidential context as lawmakers consider adopting legislative safeguards on fast-moving technology.
The 3 p.m. ET briefing, hosted by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senators, will be the first classified Senate briefing on artificial intelligence and will take place in a Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCIF) facility at the United States Capitol .
Briefers will include Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence; Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, White House Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Director Trey Whitworth.
Schumer told senators in a letter that the briefing will show how the US government “uses and invests in artificial intelligence to protect our national security and learn what our adversaries in AI are doing… Our job as lawmakers is to listen to the experts and learn as much as possible so we can translate these ideas into legislative action.”
Schumer, who called for “comprehensive legislation” to tackle AI last month, pledged to convene the “best minds in AI” starting in September to join a “series of AI Insight Forums that will begin lay a new foundation for AI policy.”
Governments around the world are considering how to mitigate the dangers of emerging technology, and US lawmakers are increasingly urging swift action to address the risks. So-called generative AI, which uses data to create new content like ChatGPT’s human-sounding prose, is growing in popularity and some experts have said it could remake human society.
In April, Schumer released a framework outlining a new regulatory regime to “prevent potentially catastrophic damage to our country while making sure the United States advances and leads this transformative technology.”
Congress is highly divided and has not reached any consensus on AI legislation.
In April, the CEOs of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, its backer Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) met with Biden and other officials to discuss AI.
Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chris Reese
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