Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will hold two AI insight forums on Nov. 1, his office said.
What's happening: Schumer is ramping up the pace of these forums. One will focus on high-impact applications of AI and the other will highlight workforce issues.
- "Workers in industries across the economy, from medicine, manufacturing, transportation, and energy, to entertainment, hospitality, and more, will feel the impacts of widespread use of AI," a copy of the workforce forum invite seen by Axios states. "The primary objective is to examine how the federal government can bolster the domestic AI workforce and ensure the use of AI benefits everyone."
- This set of Senate AI forums will follow the White House's expected release of its AI executive order on Monday.
Yes, but: The Senate forums are viewed as high-level conversations meant to keep momentum going for regulating AI, and Congress has a long way to go before getting legislation passed.
- "Let's note we are still just at the beginning — we will continue to hold bipartisan AI insight forums in the weeks and months to come, and encourage the relevant committees to begin drawing up bipartisan legislation," Schumer said in a floor speech on Wednesday.
Dakota State University President José-Marie Griffiths, who will attend the forum, said she plans to focus on the need for training and upskilling people who are involved in not just AI, but quantum and cybersecurity too.
- "We need a more skilled workforce and we cannot separate AI from cybersecurity. And I add quantum because quantum is going to really explode and accelerate the power of everything we can do in AI, which then impacts cyber," said Griffiths.
- Griffiths will also stress during the forum that "talent exists everywhere," meaning in institutions outside of the east coast and among retirees, veterans and immigrants.
- Digital literacy education at all levels — in the workplace, colleges, universities and K through 12 — is also needed.
Catch up fast: The inaugural forum in September featured tech's biggest names from X's Elon Musk to Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.
- The topic of the second forum this week was innovation, and attendees stressed the need for more government funding for AI research.
