Back in March, Hawaii state Sen. Chris Lee introduced legislation urging the U.S. Congress to consider the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence technologies.Lee instructed ChatGPT, an AI-powered system trained to follow instructions and carry out conversations, to write a piece of legislation that highlights the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI. Within moments, it produced a resolution. Lee copied and pasted the entire text without changing a word.
Some, such as Texas and North Dakota, established groups to study artificial intelligence. Others, among them Arizona and Connecticut, tackled the use of artificial intelligence systems within state government entities. AI is a tricky subject, but Rhode Island state Rep. Jennifer Stewart, a Democrat who sits on the state’s House Innovation, Internet and Technology Committee, said the uncertainty shouldn’t stop legislators from moving forward.
At the most basic level, artificial intelligence refers to machine-based systems that produce an outcome based on information inputted to it, said Sylvester Johnson, associate vice provost for public interest technology at Virginia Tech. The “light touch” approach to regulating AI would help the United States become a leader in technology on the global stage, but given the fervor over ChatGPT and other systems, legislators at all levels should be studying its developments for better understanding, Morabito said.
“You can basically say, ‘I don’t care what algorithm you’re using, you have to meet these criteria,’ Engler said. “Now, that isn’t to say there’s literally no definition, it just means that you’re not counting some algorithms in and others out.” “When they’ve gotten a legislative hammer in their hand, everything’s a nail,” Westerfield said. “And if there’s a story that pops up about this, that or the other, it doesn’t even have to affect their constituents, I think that just adds more fuel to the fire.”