Regulators Should Focus on Specific AI Risks, State of the Net Panel Says
The breadth of AI is hindering regulators, preventing them from proposing regulations for connected tech, said Adam Thierer, R Street senior fellow, technology and regulation, in a panel discussion at the State of the Net conference Monday. Efforts to regulate…
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AI at the macro level are “sucking up all the oxygen in committee rooms” and preventing discussion of smaller components of AI such as privacy. Thierer said. “This is why I don't think anything's gonna move through Congress.” Similarly, Evangelos Razis, senior manager-public policy, at AI company Workday said lawmakers should focus on the most high-impact risks of AI use, such as in healthcare, rather than trying to “have an all-encompassing AI approach that will regulate every potential use of AI.” Thierer said the AI regulatory approach should mirror the light-touch taken with the young internet. “We got a lot about the internet right,” Thierer said. Yet Miranda Bogen, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s AI Governance Lab, said the wait-and-see approach used with internet regulation resulted in economic consequences for marginalized communities. A similar attitude toward AI would likely do the same, Bogen added. The White House’s executive order took a “kitchen sink” approach to the matter that was overbroad and will generate a great deal of pushback, Thierer said. Subsequent administrations can easily reverse EOs, Thierer pointed out. Travis Hall, acting associate administrator for NTIA's Office of Policy Analysis, countered that the EO contains many “steam vents” where comments are sought on prospective policies and agencies are given discretion over implementation of rules. AI use and concerns are expanding so quickly that it’s as though policymakers are riding a train while also constructing the tracks, Hall said.