Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg visit US Congress to discuss AI

WASHINGTON: Big tech bigwigs including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg travelled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share their plans for artificial intelligence as the US prepares to draw up legislation to better control the technology.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, has planned a series of so-called AI Innovation forums, closed-door meetings where lawmakers can quiz tech leaders about the technology that has taken the world by storm since the release of ChatGPT last year.

Europe is well advanced in its own AI Act and the pressure is on US lawmakers to avoid falling behind and seeing AI overwhelm society, with lost jobs, rampant disinformation and other consequences, before it is too late.

“Today, we begin an enormous and complex and vital undertaking: building a foundation for bipartisan AI policy that Congress can pass,” Schumer told the meeting, according to remarks shared with the media.

“In past situations when things were this difficult, the natural reaction…was to ignore the problem and let someone else do the job. But with AI we can’t be like ostriches sticking our heads in the sand,” he said.

OpenAI CEO and ChatGPT creator Sam Altman and Microsoft founder Bill Gates also attended the forum, which was closed to the press.

“I’m very optimistic about (AI), but it doesn’t mean that there won’t be some rockiness along the way,” Altman said as he entered the meeting.

“I have been very impressed with our interactions with lawmakers even though I know our industry loves to dig into them,” he added.

The three-hour morning session covered a broad range of AI issues including its dangers and potential, with participants agreeing that the government had some role in dealing with the fallout from AI.