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Congress tends to react slowly to disruptive technologies.
By Ian Prasad Philbrick
As increasingly complicated synthetic intelligence systems that can reshape society come online, many experts, policymakers, and even executives of the largest AI corporations have come online. Companies need the U. S. government to acquire the technology, and fast.
“We want to act quickly,” Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, which this year unveiled an edition of its AI-based search engine, said in May. “There is no time to waste or delay,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Let’s move on,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota.
However, history suggests that comprehensive federal regulation of complex AI is needed. Systems may not arrive soon. It has taken decades for Congress and federal agencies to pass regulations governing disruptive technologies, from electric power to automobiles. “The general trend is that it takes time,” said Matthew Mittelsteadt, a technologist who studies AI at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.
It took decades after the advent of a generation for Congress to pass a primary law to regulate it.
Ian Prasad Philbrick is a member of The Morning. Find out more about Ian Prasad Philbrick
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