Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
House members on Tuesday released a long-anticipated roadmap, first shared with Axios, for how to regulate AI.
Why it matters: The report reflects the views of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who will steer AI action in the coming Congress.
- Republicans are looking for a hands-off approach to regulation, and the report largely offers broad principles rather than prescriptive policy solutions.
"Developing a bipartisan vision for AI adoption, innovation, and governance is no easy task, but a necessary one as we look to the future of AI and ensure Americans see real benefits from this technology," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement.
What's inside: The House AI working group report lays out seven "philosophies and principles," such as:
- Protecting against AI harms by taking a risk-based approach to governance that promotes innovation.
- Keeping humans at the center by ensuring systems reflect the principles of the people who design them and by attracting and retaining talent.
- Taking an incremental approach where policy adapts to AI advances.
There are 15 areas where lawmakers give recommendations, including:
- Data privacy: They recommend making privacy laws generally applicable and technology-neutral.
- National security: Lawmakers propose focused congressional oversight on AI activities and supporting international cooperation on AI used in military contexts.
- R&D: They suggest increasing tech transfers from universities to market and supporting federal investments in fundamental R&D.
- Civil rights and liberties: And lawmakers also recommend having humans in the loop for highly consequential decision-making and exploring transparency for users affected by decisions made using AI.
For the contentious closed-versus-open source debate, members said the risks of open-source models should be monitored, and that there should be a focus on demonstrable harms and physical threats.
- "Congress should not seek to impose undue burdens on developers in the absence of clear, demonstrable risk," the report states.
Other areas the report tackles include: Financial services, energy usage and data centers, health care, agriculture and more.
'The CREATE AI Act, which would authorize the National AI Research Resource, is named in the report.
- The report states that implementation and evaluation of the pilot program "should be monitored in preparation for a possible full-scale NAIRR."
What they're saying: House AI Task Force co-chair Jay Obernolte said the report "will be an essential tool for crafting AI policy that protects Americans, spurs innovation, and secures American leadership in this revolutionary technology."
- Co-chair Ted Lieu: "We have made our best efforts based on the information we have, but with the rapid pace of change in both AI software and hardware, we are fully aware that we don't know what we don't know."
- "This initial report is only the first step," Lieu added.
