[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 178 (Monday, October 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Artificial Intelligence

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I just got back from an important event 
at the White House where President Biden announced a first-ever 
Executive order regulating AI, artificial intelligence. I applaud the 
President for breaking new ground with this Executive order, and I told 
him that the Senate will work very closely with the White House to do 
more on AI through legislation.
  Tomorrow, the Senate's bipartisan AI gang--Senators Heinrich, Rounds, 
Young, and myself--will meet with President Biden at the White House to 
talk about the next steps we can take to work together. While today's 
AI Executive order is a massive step forward, everyone agrees there is 
no substitute for congressional action. Congress must act, must take 
the next step to build upon, augment, and expand today's Executive 
order by the President, and we must do it through bipartisan 
legislation.
  We must act with urgency but also with humility, balancing both 
innovation and commonsense safeguards because you can't do one without 
the other. We must act with urgency because other countries may take a 
lead on AI--and countries particularly with values we don't share. But 
we must act with humility because this is one of the hardest tasks 
Congress can undertake because AI is so complicated, so far-reaching, 
and changing all the time.
  On Wednesday morning, the Senate will bring some of the Nation's 
leading minds in labor, business, and tech to talk about AI's impact on 
America's workforce, as part of our third AI Insight Forum. And on 
Wednesday afternoon, we will hold our fourth AI Insight Forum to 
discuss areas where AI will have an especially high impact, including 
healthcare, financial services, and our justice system.
  If the Senate's AI Insight Forums have made anything clear so far, it 
is that the government must be involved in AI, must be ready to invest 
significantly toward AI innovation, and that we don't have a lot of 
time. AI development is moving quickly. Adversaries like the Chinese 
Government are moving quickly. So Congress has to act quickly too. That 
is why I am encouraged that the Senate's efforts on AI so far have been 
both balanced and bipartisan.
  We need a lot of voices at the table, not just AI developers, 
although they must be there, but critics worried about AI's potential 
harms and advocates from labor and civil rights and other areas. 
Everyone must have a hand in shaping the legislation.
  But our AI efforts must also remain bipartisan. They have to be 
because the goal is to pass legislation, and that will only happen if 
both sides work together. So far, thankfully, bipartisanship is 
precisely what we have seen at the committee level, and through our 
bipartisan AI gang--which I am proud to be part of alongside Senators 
Rounds, Young, and Heinrich--we are making very good progress.
  So, again, I applaud the President for today's first-ever AI 
Executive order and note that the Senate will build on today's 
announcement by working to get closer to passing bipartisan 
legislation. We cannot afford to wait.