Artificial intelligence is getting caught up in the debate on the tech industry's treasured liability shield, Maria reports.

Why it matters: The government is wrapping its head around how laws on the books today apply to tech that's advancing at breakneck speed.

Driving the news: The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on a draft bill from Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Ranking Member Frank Pallone to sunset Section 230.

Between the lines: An E&C Committee aide told Maria they're expecting AI to come up at the hearing and that there is broad, bipartisan agreement among lawmakers that generative AI should not be protected by Section 230.

Generative AI bots are more likely to be considered by some experts as content creators themselves, rather than the hosts, stripping them of the liability protections.

• Companies could get into trouble in cases in which chatbots "hallucinate," fully making up content on their own rather than pulling from an underlying data set.
• In response to user prompts, chatbots could also come up with responses that are defamatory and illegal.

What they're saying: "My reading of Section 230 in a world of generative AI is that tech companies now need new legislation for that technology to thrive," said UNC Tech Policy Center director Matt Perault.

• Perault suggested expanding Section 230 to protect generative AI platforms in most cases.
• That could help immunize AI companies except in cases of hallucinations.

The other side: CMR and Pallone are especially interested in holding tech companies accountable for their impact on kids.

• Kids advocacy group Common Sense Media has reviewed all major AI products, giving OpenAI's ChatGPT a 2/5 for kids' safety and Google's Bard a 3/5.
• Victims' rights attorney Carrie Goldberg, who will testify at the hearing tomorrow, said she is "totally seeing the potential for new harms," pointing to Snap's AI chatbot.

What's next: Section 230 action is likely to happen in the courts while lawmakers try to work out deep divides in an election year where legislative efforts will soon peter out.

• Various circuit courts have ruled against total Section 230 immunity in recent years, creating confusion, and the Supreme Court has left Section 230 untouched after hearing a few cases on it.
• The E&C Committee aide said they're bringing up the court cases to motivate House members and Big Tech to take action: "Is it time for Congress to actually act and make reforms and have Big Tech be part of those conversations rather than just have the courts tell us one way or the other?"

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Zillow announced today that it has created a tool for large language models to help safeguard against bias in real estate, Maria reports.

Why it matters: With AI tools increasingly used for real estate and housing, advocates, policymakers and the private sector are looking for ways to mitigate bias in algorithms or automated systems.

Driving the news: The product, the Fair Housing Classifier, is designed to help real estate companies and civil rights advocates.

• The tool will help mitigate illegal steering, which is the practice of influencing a buyer's choice of where to live based on the buyer's legally protected characteristics.

What they're saying: "We've made it our business to increase transparency in real estate — open sourcing this classifier demonstrates that advancements in technology do not need to come at the expense of equity and fairness for consumers," Zillow AI senior vice president Josh Weisberg said.

How it works: The classifier detects questions that could lead to discriminatory responses in searches or chatbots.

• Organizations that want to adopt it can get it on GitHub.

Go deeper: Government takes on AI in housing

❌ Markups off: The Senate Commerce Committee will not hold markups this week on various AI, telecom and online safety bills, per a committee spokesperson.

• We had previously reported that the committee would mark up several AI bills tomorrow, but that's not on the calendar.

• And last week's postponed markup of tech and telecom-related bills, including Chair Maria Cantwell's Spectrum and National Security Act, still doesn't have a new date.

✍️ NTIA comments: People can now submit comments to the agency regarding how the government can support 6G development and safety as well as address security and environmental concerns.

• "6G will be a next step in the mobile revolution that has brought the Internet to billions of people around the word," NTIA head Alan Davidson said.

🧷️ AI safety: Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo today released a strategic vision for the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute "rooted in two core principles — that beneficial AI depends on AI safety; and second, that AI safety depends on science."

• She also announced plans for Commerce and the AISI to help launch an international network of AI safety institutes, with a meeting this year in San Francisco.