“It’s not a national emergency” regarding AI, says senator. mike roundes he told Politico.South Dakota Republicans have worked closely with the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Although Biden is working toward drafting an AI bill, he said that using the DPA to regulate AI “is not necessarily the purpose for which the Defense Production Act was created in the first place.”
The backlash shows how attempts to create safety standards for rapidly emerging technologies can become embroiled in broader political disagreements over regulating private companies. .
Lawmakers have delayed AI regulation and say they are considering changes to the DPA. Groups tied to the conservative Koch network have filed a series of requests for information and lawsuits against the Commerce Department. Technology lobbyists have also indicated that they could face legal challenges once the Commerce Department begins exercising its newly acquired AI powers in late January.
“Abuse” of DPA?
Biden’s executive order uses the DPA to authorize the Commerce Department to set guidelines and collect reports for tech companies that train and test advanced AI models. Although this is an unconventional use of the Defense Production Act, presidents have used the Korean War-era DPA for a variety of non-wartime reasons.Donald Trump and Biden
invoked the law This is to accelerate the federal government’s response to the new coronavirus infection.
The White House declined to comment on why it used DPA to track the growth of AI models. Ben Buchanan, the White House special assistant on AI, defended this approach.
Recent Aspen Institute EventsBiden said he invoked the DPA’s emergency powers “not as a joke, but because of national security concerns.”
Technology lobbyists opposed the new reporting requirements shortly after they went into effect in October, arguing that they would stifle innovation in the field of AI.
“This is a clear violation of executive authority,” Karl Szabo, vice president and general counsel for the technology trade group NetChoice, told POLITICO. “If this matter is challenged, we expect a swift rebuke from the court.”
“The Defense Production Act is about production, and it has that in its title, but it’s not about restrictions,” Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Free Market R Street Institute, told POLITICO. his AI
policy document quoted by
American Enterprise Institute And that
Consumer Technology Association. “Basically, I’m not sympathetic to leveraging that kind of language to start regulating artificial intelligence systems and computation in a fairly broad way,” he added.
Although some Republican lawmakers have attacked the DPA, it is unclear whether Congress will revise the National Defense Act before it is renewed next year.staff Ted CruzThe top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee told POLITICO that his office is considering DPA reform as a way to block the AI executive order.
Republican Senate Commerce Staff also
Reported to be slow All AI regulations go through the commission.Senate Republican Whip John Tune He told reporters that he is working with Cruz and other Republicans to rein in the DPA’s ability to create new AI testing and training protocols for the tech industry.
Off the Hill, Americans for Prosperity, a liberal think tank founded by the Koch brothers, has filed two Freedom of Information Act filings.
lawsuit We filed a request in federal district court against the Department of Commerce and its National Institute of Standards and Technology for agency records related to DPA and artificial intelligence.
Thomas Kimbrel, an analyst with Americans for Prosperity, said in an email that the group will not be able to pass the National Defense Act unless lawmakers approve of “significant reforms” that he calls the White House’s “abuse of the DPA.” He said he is asking Congress to revoke it.
The Commerce Department declined to comment on the lawsuit, but a spokesperson said the executive order’s new reporting requirements for the tech industry are “an information-gathering effort to better understand current practices for a limited number of advanced models.” said.
Promoting broader anti-regulation
The White House’s AI strategy has also faced widespread headwinds from the Supreme Court, which is considering a case brought by another agency.
Groups associated with Koch.The lawsuit concerns fishing regulations, but the outcome could overturn that landmark
chevron Respect that allows federal agencies to interpret ambiguous laws.
Divyansh Kaushik, associate director for emerging technologies and national security at the Federation of American Scientists, said the incident is an important step in the AI executive order, which relies on the Commerce Department and other federal agencies to meet its regulatory goals. It said it could have a “potentially significant” impact. . “One of the consequences of the explosion was chevron If any state has an activist judge, I salute them. [they] It can unilaterally override the actions of government agencies,” Kaushik said.
Congressional Democrats have largely defended the Biden administration’s treatment of advanced AI as a national emergency, but acknowledged that invoking the DPA to justify industry reporting requirements could be troubling. ing.
“It’s great to have the DPA power, but I don’t think it should be used coercively,” one Democratic staffer on the Senate Commerce Committee told POLITICO.
Still, observers say the DPA is a rare opportunity for the Washington government to take action on AI, as Congress has failed to pass even general technology regulations on issues ranging from data privacy to children’s safety online. It states that it is a means.
“The reality is, when Congress is not working, the choice is to either sit back and watch the ship sink, or find a way to move the ship,” said Tom Wheeler, a visiting fellow in governance studies. To tell. He is a professor at the Brookings Institution and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Meanwhile, financial incentives for lawmakers to slow regulation of the AI industry have already begun. Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent American venture capital firm.
wrote a manifesto Late last year, he opposed “regulation of mathematics, FLOP, research and development methods, and other false ideas.”
“Every penny we donate goes to supporting like-minded candidates and opposing candidates who seek to destroy America’s advanced technology future,” he wrote.