By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House will brief senators Tuesday on artificial intelligence in a classified setting as lawmakers consider adopting legislative safeguards on the fast-moving technology.
The 3 p.m. ET briefing, organized by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and other senators, will be the first-ever classified Senate briefing on AI and will take place in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) at the U.S. Capitol.
The briefers will include Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence; Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director Arati Prabhakar and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Director Trey Whitworth.
Schumer told senators in a letter the briefing will show how the U.S. government is “using and investing in AI to protect our national security and learn what our adversaries are doing in AI…. Our job as legislators is to listen to the experts and learn as much as we can so we can translate these ideas into legislative action.”
Schumer, who last month called for “comprehensive legislation” to address AI, pledged to convene the “top minds in artificial intelligence” starting in September to join a “series of AI Insight Forums that will begin laying down a new foundation for AI policy.”
Governments around the world are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology and U.S. lawmakers are increasingly urging quick action to address risks. So-called generative AI, which uses data to create new content like ChatGPT’s human-sounding prose, is growing more popular and some experts have said it could remake human society.
In April, Schumer circulated a framework outlining a new regulatory regime to “prevent potentially catastrophic damage to our country while simultaneously making sure the U.S. advances and leads in this transformative technology.”
Congress is narrowly divided and has not reached any consensus on AI legislation.
In April, the CEOs of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, its backer Microsoft, and Alphabet met with Biden and other officials to discuss AI.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Chris Reese)
