[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 25 (Thursday, February 6, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H547-H550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ADVANCEMENTS IN AI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2025, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Kiley) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say a few words 
this evening about the rapid advancements that we are witnessing when 
it comes to the capability of artificial intelligence models.
  I don't refer just to some of the narrow applications that folks are 
familiar with, that they might take advantage of in their work, that 
they might fear eventually replacing them in work. These are sort of 
the narrow conceptions that exist in public discourse.
  The broader situation here involves the explicit goal of the leading 
labs to create what is known as artificial general intelligence, which 
is incredibly capable models that exceed human capability across 
essentially any domain.
  I actually find it stunning that some of the advancements that we 
have seen lately have gone essentially unnoticed, unreported on by the 
media. What we have seen just in the last few weeks, I think on several 
occasions, there should have been front-page stories about the dramatic 
advances that have been made, given the capacity these advances hold 
for transforming our lives, economy, society, and much else.
  What I wanted to do today is present just a few basic thoughts and 
pieces of information on the development and innovation that has been 
taking place. I am someone who has no technical expertise in this area 
at all. I just try to follow it closely because I believe the changes 
that will be upon us soon are so profound.
  To give you just kind of a flavor for the scale of change that I am 
talking about, here are a few quotes from leaders in the field:
  Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said: ``AI is probably the most 
important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something 
more profound than electricity or fire.''
  Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind, echoed these sentiments. He 
said that AI should not be thought of as just another technology. He 
said that it is more epoch-defining than even the internet or mobile, 
more like electricity or fire.
  Sam Altman, who, of course, is the head of OpenAI, said: ``With these 
new abilities, we can have shared prosperity to a degree that seems 
unimaginable today. In the future, everyone's lives can be better than 
anyone's life is now. . . . Eventually, we can each have a personal AI 
team full of virtual experts in different areas working together to 
create almost anything we can imagine.''
  Along those lines, Elon Musk, who, in addition to his other ventures, 
is the founder of xAI, said: ``AI will ultimately render money 
meaningless.'' Why is that? He believes the capabilities will 
essentially allow any person access to basically any good that they 
desire.
  Dario Amodei, who is the CEO at another lab, Anthropic, says that it 
is his guess that powerful AI could accelerate the rate of scientific 
discoveries by a factor of 10, giving us the next 50 to 100 years of 
biological progress in just the next 5 to 10 years.
  We are already seeing incredible applications such as AlphaFold from 
DeepMind, which Demis Hassabis recently won the Nobel Prize for, which 
has predicted the 3D structures of over 200 million proteins, 
essentially solving the protein folding problem.
  At the recent unveiling of the Stargate initiative, Mr. Altman was 
joined by Larry Ellison, who also spoke about the potential to cure 
cancer and essentially any other disease.
  This might all sound pretty vague and certainly very optimistic. 
Maybe it sounds like hype, so I want to present a couple of charts that 
really clearly make this point, not only about the ultimate potential 
of AI models but about the rapid acceleration that we are right now 
currently in the midst of.

                              {time}  1845

  This chart is one metric of basically how smart a model is. It is 
called the GPQA diamond. If you look at the chart here, this axis is 
how well it does on the test, the model.

[[Page H548]]

  This axis is when the model was released. The different models over 
the time are the ``Xs'' there. The chart doesn't actually go back that 
far. It just goes back to July of 2023. We are looking at basically 35 
percent for one of the models then.
  You see that the line continues to go up steadily, a little bit at a 
time. Now, just in the last few weeks, you have seen this truly 
exponential growth rate. Those are both OpenAI models that are listed 
there; o1 pro and o3. I guess the o2 there was some trademark issues, 
so they jumped right from 1 to 3.
  That shows you that we are on a rapidly accelerating curve. Now, the 
second chart I think makes this point even more clearly. One of the 
problems with the benchmarks that are being used to judge the 
capability of models is they get saturated very quickly. The models are 
becoming so much smarter that they ace the exam, and so the exam isn't 
good for anything anymore.
  There was this effort to come up with what they called humanity's 
last exam, saying once they can solve this, then they have solved just 
about anything. This was unveiled, and the model's GPT-4o, which is 
actually the model that most people use--if you just go to ChatGPT, 
that is the one that it sort of defaults to--it didn't so well, 3.3 
percent.
  However, we are now up to the latest model that OpenAI has released, 
26.6 percent. I included this tweet from--I think this actually is a 
reporter who said: When I wrote about humanity's last exam, the leading 
AI model got an 8.3 percent score. Five models now surpassed that, and 
the best model is 26.6 percent. That was 10 days ago.
  In 10 days, we have gone from 8.3 percent to 26.6 percent on 
humanity's last exam. By the way, you will see that DeepSeek here at a 
respectable 9.4 percent. This is kind of the exception where you have 
seen a lot of media coverage of an advancement in AI.
  The coverage really focused on the geopolitical implications of 
having this breakthrough come from a Chinese company. Of course, that 
is a very, very serious and concerning topic. Kind of lost in the 
coverage was perhaps the more important point of what it means for all 
of us, for humanity collectively, when we see this sort of exponential 
growth in the capability of these AI models.
  What is essentially driving this very recent trend of exponential 
growth is the advent of unlocking a new scaling law around what is 
called test time compute. For a while, the way that these models were 
getting more capable was by scaling up the compute, the computation, 
that went into training them.
  You trained the model, and it became more and more powerful as you 
use more and more GPUs and compute to train them. Then, after a fine-
tuning process, you end up releasing them, and folks use them.
  That sort of scaling law has leveled off some. What is now happening 
is the new scaling law that has been unlocked is when you, the user, 
actually enter a query into, you know, a Claude or Gemini or ChatGPT or 
whatever your model is, it will take time to think about the answer. 
Then, we are scaling up the compute that is involved in that thinking 
process. They are called thinking or reasoning models.
  Just in a few weeks, whatever it was, when OpenAI went from the o1 
model to the o3 model, we saw this incredible increase in capability, 
and there is not really any sign that it is slowing down.
  The implication of that is that we might see even more rapid and even 
more astonishing advances very soon. It is pretty astonishing what 
these systems can accomplish even now.
  I mean, I am someone who doesn't know how to write a line of code, 
but you can go to the latest models, and I can basically design you a 
rudimentary computer game instantly by just telling the model what to 
code.
  For some of them, like Claude, it will actually produce some version 
of it right there for you. Others, you can just cut and paste it into 
some other application, but then it creates the application for you.
  On the last chart, it said we are now kind of above the level of a 
Ph.D. in their field, which is a pretty high bar to begin with. The 
acceleration ahead could be further stimulated by the fact that this 
applies to many fields, but also computer science.
  You could well see, and, in fact, you are already seeing it to some 
extent, and it is likely to pick up dramatically, the models themselves 
that are working on their own coding that are contributing to their own 
growth and capability.
  You are also, by the way, seeing models that are built around solving 
specific problems. I mentioned AlphaFold or models built around 
discovering new materials. You also have uses of AI that are guiding 
action in the physical world, such as self-driving cars.
  If you don't live in L.A. or San Francisco or Phoenix, you probably 
haven't ridden in a Waymo. It works incredibly well as a driverless 
vehicle. It surpassed the market share of Lyft, I believe, now in San 
Francisco. This has been made possible largely by AI or similarly 
Tesla's self-driving systems available in millions of cars being 
trained with a neural network.
  Also, none of this accounts for the potential of quantum computing 
where Google recently achieved an incredible breakthrough and the 
interaction of quantum and AI could lead to even more staggering 
results.
  This acceleration is happening very, very fast. My purpose in talking 
about it is not a call for regulation. Although, I do think some 
regulation is appropriate, but ultimately no regulation is going to 
stop this or really even dramatically slow down this progress.
  I mean, the example of DeepSeek and what China is working on makes 
that point very clearly. I do, however, think that we need to invest 
heavily in research around AI safety and alignment. I think what we 
really need to ask are just some fundamental questions about how 
we might prepare for the radical transformation that could be upon us 
very soon.

  We need more public awareness of what is going on and more voices 
involved because right now, the advance from OpenAI's latest models 
from o1 to o3 isn't really a topic of public discussion, it isn't a 
headline in any major newspaper.
  The discourse is really limited to those who work at these labs or 
work adjacent to them in Silicon Valley or some fairly small online 
communities who are talking about these things.
  They are increasingly becoming very relevant to the lives of all of 
us. I think we need to have more voices involved in shaping how we 
manage this technology; how we prepare for what is ahead; and how we 
can identify and preserve the values that really matter to us as a 
nation and as humanity in the face of this radical change.
  To that end, I am planning to continue to give regular updates from 
this floor on advances in artificial intelligence, advances toward AGI, 
artificial general intelligence, or ASI, and the implications that it 
might have. I do this, again, as someone who is not an expert in this 
area, that doesn't understand the technology at a deep level, but 
believes that its implications are so profound that we need to have 
everyone in our country involved in considering how we prepare for it.


                     American Education Trajectory

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce that I 
am sponsoring the High Quality Charter Schools Act, which has the 
potential to give millions more students in this country access to an 
excellent education.
  Now, as the chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, 
Elementary, and Secondary Education that spans K-12, as well as pre-K, 
I am extremely concerned about the continual decline of American 
education as illustrated dramatically in the recent National Assessment 
for Education Progress scores, showing that our test scores continue to 
decline in math and in reading.
  This is incredibly concerning when it comes to the life prospects for 
these young people, as well as the future of our country. I think one 
of the powerful ways that we can change this trajectory is by 
highlighting the schools that are out there that are doing a really 
good job because there are a lot of great schools out there.
  In my district, we have a number of phenomenal schools. This is true 
for traditional public schools, for charter schools, as well as for 
private schools. You don't, in a sense, have to reinvent the wheel when 
you think about good education policy because we have schools and 
school systems out there

[[Page H549]]

that are doing the job very well right now.
  This is especially true when it comes to the charter sector. Charters 
have generally shown, as a sector, to lead to additional days of 
student learning in any given year, but you can then home in on the 
truly excellent charter schools. They are getting unbelievable results 
in a lot of cases.
  This bill is providing a 50 percent tax credit for donations to 
nonprofit charter school organizations that have a track record of 
excellence. It will make it easier for them to replicate themselves, to 
expand, to open new schools based upon their already-proven successful 
model, and thereby invite in more kids.
  A lot of these really successful charters have hundreds or thousands 
of kids on their wait-lists. If we can create more seats, then that is 
going to be that many more kids getting access to a great education.
  By the way, that will also have good effects on the neighboring 
school districts that will then be able to adapt themselves and try to 
offer a higher quality education product themselves.
  The virtue of the charter school model, which I think ought to be 
incorporated more into the traditional public school system, as well, 
is that, number one, you have flexibility for the folks that run the 
schools. They are not told by State or Federal Departments of Education 
exactly how they have to run their schools. They don't have a million 
regulations to comply with. They are able to pursue their own 
educational vision.
  The tradeoff is that in turn for that flexibility in terms of how the 
schools run, there is accountability for outcomes. There is 
accountability for actually doing a good job educating kids.
  That accountability also comes from the fact that they don't get 
students assigned to them just by default based who is in the 
neighborhood. They actually have to attract families to come and sign 
up to go to school there.
  The third part of the equation is that families do have that choice: 
Providing choices to families as to where they send their child to 
school. You have flexibility on the front end, accountability on the 
back end, and choices for families. That is the formula that has proven 
to be so successful. This legislation will be very powerful in 
expanding the impact of that formula.

  There is perhaps no more high-impact use of education dollars than 
expanding successful charter schools because they are already doing the 
job very well. By the way, they are most effective when it comes to 
closing achievement gaps and to helping students in underserved 
communities.
  I am very excited about this legislation, look forward to building 
support for it throughout this year, and ultimately getting it signed 
into law.


                      Recognizing Edward G. Heidig

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize a valued 
member of my team who will be retiring at the end of this month: Edward 
G. Heidig. Before joining my office, Ed had a vibrant career in public 
service.
  Early on in that career, he worked for former Senator Pete Wilson in 
his D.C. office as a legislative assistant. Ed then went on to serve in 
a variety of roles within State and Federal departments, including as 
the Director of the Department of Conservation for the State of 
California; Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for the California 
Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency; Director of the 
California Office of Administrative Law; General Counsel for the 
Diocese of Sacramento; Chief Deputy Director for the California 
Department of Managed Healthcare; and the Regional Director for the 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  Shortly after I was elected and came into office, Ed came out of 
retirement to become my senior field representative for Placer County. 
During his tenure as a senior field representative, Ed played an 
absolutely vital role toward establishing my congressional district 
office, and he quickly became integrated and much beloved in the Placer 
County community.
  His role included responsibilities in facilitating community 
relationships with government entities, providing congressional 
recognition and awards, hosting events, participating in community 
gatherings, scheduling meetings, mentoring interns, and recording the 
oral histories of veterans through the Veterans History Project, just 
to name a few.
  He has become very popular in Placer County. He did a fantastic job 
for us. He is known by our team for his quick wit, tenacity, care, and 
compassion, not to mention his unique vocabulary, and, of course, his 
signature catch phrase: ``Thank you for your consideration.''
  Mr. Speaker, Ed is held in high esteem by his colleagues and those 
who have the great pleasure of knowing him. We were very fortunate to 
have had his high level of expertise in my district office, which he 
used to provide outstanding constituent services during my first term 
in Congress.
  Ed's sense of humor, congeniality, team spirit, hard work, and 
determination will be missed by me and by all of our team.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, 
I am honored to thank and recognize Edward Heidig for his service to 
the people of Placer County and California's Third Congressional 
District. I wish him the very best in his retirement.

                              {time}  1900


                    Recognizing the Temple Or Rishon

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize the receipt 
of a new Holocaust Torah at the Temple Or Rishon, a Jewish synagogue 
located in Orangevale, California.
  I was honored to attend the rededication of the Torah for its 
original purpose to this temple community on February 2, along with the 
Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, Marco Sermoneta.
  This scroll is approximately 155 years old, having survived the 
Holocaust during World War II, and it came to the temple from the 
Memorial Scrolls Trust. The trust is a charitable organization that was 
established to preserve and care for the over 1,500 Torah scrolls 
rescued from Czechoslovakia, where they had been looted by the Nazis. 
These scrolls were discovered in the early 1960s in a warehouse in 
Prague.
  Having raised the funds to restore this particular Torah scroll, 
Temple Or Rishon is among the few institutions in the world entrusted 
with one of the Holocaust Torahs. This Torah represents the incredible 
traditions and resilience of the Jewish community in Orangevale, 
Sacramento, and around the world.
  It certainly speaks to the Temple Or Rishon that it has been 
entrusted for this very important role and the incredibly important 
role it plays for so many folks in our community and our entire region. 
This ceremony is especially important in light of January 27 being 
Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the House of Representatives, I am honored 
to recognize the receiving of this Holocaust Torah at Temple Or Rishon.


                        Recognizing Wendy Thomas

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize Supervisor 
Wendy Thomas for her years of service.
  Supervisor Thomas has served the people of El Dorado County for 
nearly 40 years, with an overall career in public service spanning over 
a decade.
  Even prior to her career in public service, Supervisor Thomas had 
longstanding ties with her community. She was born and raised in 
Placerville, and she established a strong educational foundation at 
Principia College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in both 
business administration and fine art.
  Wendy then further fostered her business acumen by owning and 
operating The Printing Press in Placerville for about 23 years, 
strongly contributing to the local economy.
  In addition to her business endeavors, Wendy showcased her artistic 
gifts for years. She achieved recognition in multiple exhibitions for 
her watercolor artistry, authored a book, and had her work featured in 
several other watercolor publications.
  Wendy's family has called the region home for many generations, 
finding success as placer miners in 1850 and, shortly thereafter, 
becoming businessowners in Placerville. In fact, public service is in 
her family's history. Her great-great-grandfather was a recorder-clerk 
of El Dorado County and later served as county sheriff and tax 
collector in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. So, he was the 
recorder-clerk, the sheriff, and the tax collector, which is pretty 
good.
  In 2010, Wendy Thomas began her own career in public service after 
being

[[Page H550]]

elected to the Placerville City Council. During her 8 years on the city 
council, with two terms as mayor, she remained steadfast in her 
commitment to the community. She created and implemented the 
Neighborhood Chat Program, which streamlined constituent outreach. 
Wendy was also instrumental in securing roughly $40 million to fix 
Placerville's failing roads and pipes.
  In 2014, she was named Woman of the Year for District 5 of the 
California State Assembly.
  After being elected to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors in 
2020, Wendy brought with her years of experience in governance and 
knowledge gained from earning her master's degree in political science 
from Southern New Hampshire University. She embodied a passionate, 
resourceful, and respectful style of leadership, driven by her deep and 
abiding love for her community.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, 
I am honored to recognize County Supervisor Wendy Thomas for her 
extraordinary career and her commitment to public service. I join the 
community in wishing her the very best in her next chapter.


          Celebrating Roseville Host Lions Club's Anniversary

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and celebrate 
the centennial anniversary of the Roseville Host Lions Club, a truly 
remarkable organization located in my district that is dedicated to 
meeting the needs of the Roseville community and people around the 
world.
  In 1925, a group of civic-minded individuals formed what was to be 
among Roseville's first community service clubs. Throughout its 
history, the men and women of this organization have sought to 
exemplify what it means to be true community servants.
  With major rail hubs and the Lincoln Highway propelling Roseville to 
serve as a critical logistical hub during World War II, club members 
and their families housed GIs traveling through the city on their way 
to the Pacific theater. The level of care and comfort provided by the 
club helped to bolster the morale of the young men and women sent to 
ensure the safety of our great Nation.

  In recent years, the Roseville Host Lions Club has dedicated 
themselves to supporting local youth and seeing them thrive.
  In the past, I have had the opportunity to join them for their 
Student Speaker Contest, an exceptional program in which students are 
challenged to improve upon their research and speaking abilities while 
being provided with various scholarships.
  Building upon their initial foundations, the Roseville Lions also 
worked to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. 
Through their support of various initiatives like the Folsom Prison 
Project for the Visually Impaired and the Guide Dogs for the Blind, the 
Roseville Host Lions Club continues to fulfill its obligation of being 
knights for the blind, given to them by Helen Keller 100 years ago.
  In times of great hardship and crisis, the Roseville Host Lions Club 
has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to community service. From 
providing critical services and aid to victims of the 1989 Loma Prieta 
earthquake and the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami to sending medical 
equipment to Mexico and sponsoring exchange students both locally and 
internationally, the Roseville Host Lions Club has left an indelible 
mark on the world and our community most profoundly.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, 
I am honored to recognize the Roseville Host Lions Club for their 100 
years of community service and commend them for their significant 
contributions in Placer County and across the globe.


          Recognizing Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize outgoing 
Placer County Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper for his years of 
devoted service to Placer County.
  Chief Hopper has been an integral part of Placer County's probation 
system for nearly three decades and has served as chief probation 
officer for the last 14 years.
  Chief Hopper earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice at 
Sacramento State University and his master's degree in public 
administration from Golden Gate University.
  Chief Hopper first served his country as a military police officer 
for the Army National Guard and as a probation guard in Shasta and El 
Dorado Counties. In 1997, he began in Placer County as a deputy 
probation officer. After serving as a senior deputy probation officer, 
he was promoted to probation manager in 2005, assistant chief in 2010, 
and, finally, as chief probation officer in 2011.
  Chief Hopper's steadfast dedication to public service and to making a 
positive impact on those under his probation supervision has been a 
hallmark of his leadership. His efforts to promote innovation in the 
department led Chief Hopper and his team to spearhead many projects 
implemented throughout the county and even the State.
  Some of Chief Hopper's wide diversity of accomplishments include 
creating the department's Professional Standards Division, initiating 
the Placer Re-Entry Program, creating the nationally recognized 
Probation Outreach Vehicle program, and establishing the county's low-
barrier homeless shelter.
  Through these efforts and many more, the probation system in Placer 
has excelled. It is because of the efforts of Chief Marshall Hopper and 
those like him that the residents of Placer County are afforded a 
strong sense of safety, security, and prosperity within our 
communities.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, 
it is an honor and a privilege to acknowledge Placer County Chief 
Probation Officer Marshall Hopper for his exceptional career in law 
enforcement. I am proud to join Marshall's wife, Stefanie; his 
children, Tyler and Emily; Placer County; and California's Third 
Congressional District in wishing him the very best in his next 
chapter.

                          ____________________