Kamala Harris meeting with top tech CEOs to address concerns over AI
Heritage Foundation tech policy research associate Jake Denton discusses 'PR stunt' ahead of the 2024 election.
We’re now seeing the Democrats say the quiet part out loud when it comes to artificial intelligence: they want to control AI development for political purposes.
These efforts are not just going to further divide the country, but they will kneecap America’s next decade of innovation. This assault on innovation is occurring at both the executive and legislative levels, where Democrats are using the novelty of AI to seize control over speech.
Earlier this year, President Biden signed an executive order for agencies to "root out bias" by requiring diversity, equity and inclusion training for AI – ensuring any results are woke approved. This month, Vice President Kamala Harris is also getting in on the AI action by meeting with developers to ensure "equity" in AI.
Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden applaud during an event at the White House on Feb. 2, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Congressional Democrats are using AI as an excuse to suppress Republican re-election ads. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to surrender control of AI to Biden’s Federal Elections Commission to prevent "misleading" voters. The justification for the bill? A Republican ad attacking Biden, which includes an AI-created image – the horror.
If accuracy were the concern, we’d hear the same expressed over Democrats using out-of-context statements to make false claims about Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. But this is not about ensuring the electorate has accurate information. It’s about control over speech and election ads, and AI is the excuse to seize power.
At Biden’s activist Federal Trade Commission, Chair Lina Khan is using fearmongering to call for new powers to hold AI accountable. Just this week, Khan used The New York Times to push Congress to give her even more power over this new tech. But Khan didn’t once mention consumers in her piece, and she neglected to mention that her own agency already has the power to subject AI to existing laws.
FTC Chair Lina Khan speaks during a House Appropriation Subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 18, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Just like this administration gave away our energy independence, they are giving away our global AI leadership in a war to advance the progressive agenda. America cannot afford the Biden administration undermining innovation or seizing power over this nascent technology. And America cannot allow the use of extreme hypotheticals to scare us into surrendering more power to this administration.
The solution to Democrats’ alleged concerns about AI is pretty simple. Industry guidelines of: (1) letting people know when something is created by an AI, (2) subjecting AI to the same laws as any other tool and (3) ensuring that submissions are secured from bad actors – especially things like confidential information.
With these three guidelines, we can address the concerns without further expanding government power. And if Congress did want to do something, it could advance comprehensive data privacy laws to make it easier and less expensive for businesses to develop AI while creating essential protections in other sectors, too.
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At the same time, the free market will address concerns about an AI service becoming "too woke." American consumers vote with their feet – and their wallets. Already, Microsoft’s OpenAI has been accused of being too woke, and with competition in the marketplace, users will go where they get the best results, not the ones that conform to an agenda. But that can only happen if we keep Biden and the Democrats from seizing control of AI for their benefit.
At the end of the day, AI is just a tool. It’s a computer algorithm to make life easier. In the same way the bicycle, automobile and airplane advanced travel, AI is advancing medicine, mobility and quality of life. Today, AI is detecting cancer better than human doctors. It is helping the blind better identify friends and family, and it is stopping millions of cyberattacks from criminals. And this is just the beginning of AI’s development.
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To reach these life-changing AI opportunities, we can’t limit innovation to the speed of government. The rest of the world isn’t slowing down on developing AI. China is spending millions to make itself a world leader, and bad actors are using AI to attack our critical infrastructure.
If the United States wants to continue being the tech world leader, the Biden administration mustn't be allowed to bear down on AI. As President Reagan famously said, "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I'm from the government and I’m here to help.’"