[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 195 (Tuesday, November 28, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5620-S5621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Artificial Intelligence

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, artificial intelligence--or what is 
referred to as AI--has been with us for quite some time now. And 
whether it is the chatbot providing help on Amazon, or personalized 
recommendations on Netflix, or the algorithms that are curating your 
social media feeds, these days, most of us interact with artificial 
intelligence on a daily basis. But as the release of ChatGPT to the 
public last year demonstrated, artificial intelligence is about to take 
a giant step forward.
  The AI applications I have mentioned, like chatbots and personalized 
recommendations, are examples of so-called narrow AI, which is AI 
trained to perform specific tasks. But ChatGPT is an example of the 
next generation of AI--artificial intelligence systems set up to 
imitate the human brain and produce original content based on the 
assimilation of vast sets of data.
  This next generation of AI--so-called foundation models which 
underpin systems like ChatGPT--offers tremendous possibilities: 
advances in medicine, in farming, in manufacturing, the automation of 
routine tasks, new ways to manage infrastructure, better and more 
resilient supply chains, advances in national defense. And the list, 
literally, goes on and on.
  But as with any sophisticated technology, this next generation of AI 
presents risks as well. And those risks are heightened by the enormous 
capabilities of AI and the potential for this technology to pervade 
every corner of our society. And our goal needs to be encouraging the 
promise of AI while putting safeguards in place to minimize potential 
dangers.
  The light-touch approach the United States has taken to internet 
regulation is a good model to follow as we approach AI regulation. The 
explosive growth of internet innovation in the United States is, in 
large part, a result of the fact that the government has not weighed 
down this sector of the economy with heavyhanded regulation. And we 
should maintain a similarly light touch when it comes to AI to 
encourage innovation and keep the United States at the forefront of the 
next generation of artificial intelligence.
  Leadership in AI will benefit our economy. And there are also serious 
security reasons why staying at the forefront of the AI revolution is 
important. There is no question that AI will come to play an important 
role in national defense, and falling behind adversaries--like the 
Chinese Communist Party--could put our country at a serious 
disadvantage when it comes to our national security. So we need to 
start establishing some basic rules of the road that will allow AI 
innovation to flourish, while at the same time minimizing the dangers 
that it presents.
  The race to regulate AI has already started. President Biden has 
released a sweeping Executive order that empowers multiple government 
Agencies and Departments to regulate all AI systems, and even the 
algorithms that recommend our next movie on Netflix or remind us that 
we need to order more paper towels.
  And internationally, the European Union has continued to press 
forward with a heavyhanded regulatory regime. It is time for Congress 
to ensure that innovation in the United States continues. Regulating AI 
by Executive order is not the way to go about things.
  Even if the President's Executive order on AI weren't overly broad 
and heavyhanded, Executive orders are, by their very nature, not 
permanent, since they have the potential to be reversed or amended at 
any time--and stand a good chance of being reversed or amended when a 
new administration comes into office. This creates uncertainty for 
companies, which can stunt expansion and innovation.
  The right way to approach AI regulation is to pursue a bipartisan, 
nationwide approach in Congress that will protect innovation while 
putting in place the necessary safeguards for the riskiest applications 
of this technology.
  To that end, shortly before Thanksgiving, I introduced bipartisan AI 
legislation with Senator Klobuchar and several of our Commerce 
Committee colleagues from both parties. Our bill is intended to 
establish some basic rules of the road for artificial intelligence 
while protecting the ability of companies to innovate and advance this 
technology.
  Our bill focuses on two things: transparency for consumers and a 
tiered, risk-based framework for oversight of the highest impact 
applications of AI. On the transparency front, our bill would require 
any large-scale internet platform that uses generative AI to create 
content to clearly inform consumers of that fact. One of the risks 
presented by generative AI is the difficulty distinguishing AI-produced 
content from human-produced content.
  Now, that may not be a huge issue if the content we are talking about 
is an amusing meme, but it is a real issue if a consumer is trying to 
figure out whether information or an image is real or whether it has 
been generated by AI. So requiring transparency about whether content 
is being produced--or at least partially produced--by generative AI 
needs to be a priority.
  The second part of our bill deals with high-impact and critical-
impact AI, that is, AI applications used to make significant 
applications in particularly high-risk sectors. Our bill establishes a 
two-tiered system for overseeing these applications.

[[Page S5621]]

  Critical-impact AI applications--for example, like those used to make 
significant decisions in the operation of critical infrastructure--
would be required to self-certified compliance with testing evaluation, 
validation, and verification standards.
  What does all that mean? High-impact AI applications will be subject 
solely to transparency reporting requirements. Importantly, this part 
of the bill is carefully tailored to apply only to AI applications 
making complex decisions in high-risk sectors and is meant to respond 
directly and narrowly to the recent leap in capabilities of foundation 
models that power them.
  I believe that the bill Senator Klobuchar and I have introduced is 
the right first step when it comes to AI technology. Unlike the White 
House's Executive order, our bill doesn't instantly assume that 
artificial technology is bad and that it should be subject to 
heavyhanded government intervention, nor does our legislation rush us 
into regulations before we have a clear idea of what aspects of this 
technology need to be regulated and in what way.
  Instead, our bill puts in place guardrails to mitigate the dangers 
posed by the highest-impact AI application, while leaving American 
innovators and entrepreneurs free to move forward with innovation.
  I am grateful to Senator Klobuchar and our other cosponsors for 
working with me on this bill, and we will continue to welcome ideas to 
further improve our legislation. Legislation on this issue of this 
magnitude calls for the deliberation of the committee process and 
regular order consideration, and I will work to ensure that we take it 
up in the Commerce Committee in the coming months.
  This bill will probably not be the last bill that Congress needs to 
consider when it comes to AI, but I believe it is the right place for 
us to begin. And I look forward to working with colleagues from both 
parties to getting this bill through Congress and across the finish 
line.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.