There was no mistaking the mood in the Senate room in Washington last Thursday as politicians and tech bosses debated artificial intelligence. The consensus was that it was essential for the US to deregulate and accelerate investment in order to outrun China in the latest technological arms race. Europe, meanwhile, was ridiculed as an AI also-ran having hobbled itself with “stifling” regulations.
Lobbing a softball to the tech executives, Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked: how harmful would it be if the US followed the EU in creating a heavy-handed regulatory process for AI? “I think that would be disastrous,” replied OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman.
Deregulation and acceleration may be the watchwords in Washington after President Donald Trump tore up his predecessor’s sweeping executive order on AI. Republicans later trumpeted almost $1tn of promised investment in the sector. But that worldview is evidently not shared across the nation. Thirty-one US states passed resolutions or laws on AI last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, covering harms, such as the use of deepfakes in elections, employment discrimination and lack of consumer protection. This year, the NCSL has flagged a further 550 AI-related bills that have been introduced in 45 states.