Schumer speaks to reporters after a closed-door lunch meeting with Senate Democrats on Oct. 24. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The second AI forum hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer focused on the need for more government funding for research on AI data, modeling and education.
Driving the news: Tuesday's forum, meant to center on "innovation," featured VCs, academics, CEOs of smaller AI companies and civil society groups, and attracted far less fanfare and press attention than Schumer's first roundtable with Big Tech CEOs.
What they're saying: Participants said that "at a minimum $32 billion" is needed to fund government initiatives like the National AI Research Resource, Schumer told reporters outside the meeting.
- "We need significant dollars," he said.
- "Not only do we need government involvement, but we need [funding], and that was really revelatory, because we had just about universality, even among some very conservative people, that we need to do just that."
Context: In opening remarks, one participant, Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and chairman and CEO of Revolution, called for encouraging competition.
- "AI shouldn't result in Silicon Valley further entrenching its dominance. Instead, it should be a path to level the playing field, and create more opportunity, for more people, in more places."
- Case said Congress needs to work to "ensure growth of AI will include entrepreneurial talent from across the country."
- He stressed the need for more funding from the CHIPS and Science Act to be appropriated: "I urge you, as part of your discussions about AI, to appropriate the balance of the $10 billion."
One source in the room told Axios there was discussion about data ownership, and some skepticism about regulation that would involve licensing, along with calls for doing "grand challenges" with help from the federal government around validation and data.
The intrigue: MIT AI researcher Max Tegmark told Axios he was glad a letter he co-authored in March calling for a pause on training all AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 helped spur conversations around slowing down and regulating.
- Speaking to Axios after the forum, he said there was a hesitance in the room to discuss regulating artificial general intelligence and "super intelligence," powerful AI models being developed by companies like DeepMind, Anthropic and OpenAI.
- "Nobody wanted to discuss it when I brought it up... one other participant explicitly called me out by name and said we shouldn't talk about that. But we need to talk about that."
- Congress needs to move fast before new models are released in 2-3 years, he said.
The bottom line: "Some of the people in the room said it's not such a worry, other said it is. When it's that severe, we can't take the risk. So we're looking at it seriously," said Schumer.
