American technology leaders including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai met with lawmakers at Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a closed-door forum that focused on regulating artificial intelligence.
Lawmakers are grappling with tips on how to mitigate the risks of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity after the discharge of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot.
“It’s necessary for us to have a referee,” Musk told reporters, adding that a regulator was needed “to be sure that corporations take actions which are protected and in the overall interest of the general public.”
Recent Jersey Sen. Cory Booker praised the discussion, saying all of the participants agreed “the federal government has a regulatory role” but crafting laws could be a challenge.
Lawmakers want safeguards against potentially dangerous deepfakes similar to bogus videos, election interference and attacks on critical infrastructure.
“Today, we start an infinite and complex and vital undertaking: constructing a foundation for bipartisan AI policy that Congress can pass,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said in opening remarks. “Congress must play a job, because without Congress we’ll neither maximize AI’s advantages, nor minimize its risks.”
![Elon Musk](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039229661.jpg?w=1024)
![Musk with Palantir CEO Alex Karp and AFL-CIO President Elizabeth Shuler](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039153338.jpg?w=1024)
Other attendees include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft Satya Nadella, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, AFL-CIO labor federation President Liz Shuler and Senators Mike Rounds, Martin Heinrich and Todd Young.
Schumer, who discussed AI with Musk in April, said attendees would talk “about why Congress must act, what inquiries to ask, and tips on how to construct a consensus for protected innovation.”
In March, Musk and a bunch of AI experts and executives called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4, citing potential risks to society.
![Bill Gates](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039158988.jpg?w=1024)
![Human Rights President and CEO Maya Wileyand Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039188631.jpg?w=1024)
![Humane Intelligence CEO Rumman Chowdhury, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039170055.jpg?w=1024)
This week, Congress is holding three separate hearings on AI. Microsoft President Brad Smith told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday that Congress should “require safety brakes for AI that controls or manages critical infrastructure.”
Smith compared AI safeguards to requiring circuit breakers in buildings, school buses having emergency brakes and airplanes having collision avoidance systems.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley questioned Wednesday’s closed-door session, saying Congress has did not pass any meaningful tech laws. “I don’t know why we’d invite all the most important monopolists on the earth to return and give Congress recommendations on tips on how to help them make more money,” Hawley said.
Regulators globally have been scrambling to attract up rules governing using generative AI, which may create text and generate images whose artificial origins are virtually undetectable.
![Schumer said Congress must play a role in regulating artificial intelligence.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/AFP_33V42Q6.jpg?w=1024)
![Sen. John Fetterman arrives for Wednesday's forum.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039083837.jpg?w=1024)
![Chuck Schumer hosts the forum](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039124831.jpg?w=1024)
Adobe, IBM, Nvidia and five other corporations on Tuesday said they’d signed President Joe Biden’s voluntary AI commitments, which require steps similar to watermarking AI-generated content.
The commitments, which were announced in July, were aimed at ensuring AI’s power was not used for destructive purposes. Google, OpenAI and Microsoft signed on in July. The White House has also been working on an AI executive order.