Congress’s AI Bill Pile-up: Cure Cancer, Cage Chatbots
Lawmakers Pulling Two Directions on AI
US lawmakers introduced a cluster of AI bills around 4 July, pulling in two distinct directions: deploying AI for various government initiatives and simultaneously trying to rein it in. Some proposals aim to utilize AI for paediatric cancer research, tax fraud detection, border surveillance, and federal prize challenges. Others seek to regulate chatbots, data centres, metadata labelling, and more.
AI as a Solution vs. a Hazard
In about ten days, US lawmakers filed numerous AI-related bills, per Nextgov/FCW. One set advocates for faster government adoption of AI. The other calls for stricter controls. Both perspectives are evident in the same week from the same chamber, highlighting a crucial tension.
Deploying AI for Good
- Accelerating Innovation for Kids with Cancer Act: Rep. Michael McCaul introduced this bill on 9 July, aiming to appoint a Coordinator of AI Innovation to lead federal support for paediatric cancer research, preparing data infrastructure and promoting multimodal data in clinical trials.
- AI Tax Integrity Act: Rep. Vern Buchanan proposes using AI to hunt tax fraud at the Treasury Department, focusing on identity theft and bogus refunds.
- Border AI Act: Rep. David Schweikert suggests employing anomaly-detection algorithms at Arizona border crossings.
- National AI Initiative Act: Rep. Nick Begich wants to add a federal prize challenge component to this act, covering areas like materials science and interpretability.
Regulating AI Chatbots and Data Centres
- People-First Chatbot Act: Reps. Valerie Foushee and Greg Casar propose stopping companies from training chatbots on underage users’ chat logs, disabling harmful features for minors, disclosing chatbot interactions, and conducting safety assessments.
- Spot the Fakes Act (introduced on 2 July by a bipartisan trio): This act would require the FTC and NIST to create technical rules forcing AI-generated content to carry metadata labels.
These bills reflect both the potential of AI and the concerns surrounding it, with lawmakers grappling with how to navigate this rapidly evolving technology.