Gates, Musk and Zuckerberg Convene in Washington to Address Future AI Regulation

Top tech CEOs gathered for a meeting in Washington on Wednesday to discuss AI regulations with the lawmakers. Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, organised the meeting that brought together high-profile CEOs, leaders from civil society, and over 60 senators. This was the first of nine sessions aimed at reaching a common agreement as the Senate gets ready to create rules for the rapidly advancing artificial intelligence industry. CEOs from Meta, Google, OpenAI, Nvidia, and IBM were part of the group.

All those present in the meeting agreed that the federal government should oversee AI however, they couldn’t agree on the specific details of how that oversight should work or the legislation involved.

The challenge for Congress is to make sure AI does good things but doesn’t cause risks of AI, technology-based discrimination, problems to the security of the nation, or as Elon Musk mentioned, “civilisation risk.”

Senators heard different ideas. Some said AI could be a problem for jobs and civil rights while other leaders said everyone should have a say in making rules. Most agree that AI needs rules and not a free pass. But they didn’t really talk about the tougher questions, especially on whether a new federal agency is needed to regulate AI.

Schumer, who organised the meeting, said “You want to be able to maximise the benefits and minimise the harm, And that will be our difficult job.”