Week of October 30, 2023
After nearly three weeks, the House has finally settled on a new speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA). Speaker Johnson has been a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where he has been critical of the tech community on such issues as Section 230 protections and social media communications with government officials. At the same time, he has worked with industry on a number of telecom issues, and has demonstrated interest in AI regulations.
Johnson faces an ambitious legislative agenda through the rest of the year, and must either pass another continuing resolution or a slew of appropriations packages before federal funding runs out on November 17.
In the Senate, Members continue their educational pursuit of AI, with Majority Leader Schumer set to hold two more AI Insight Forums on Wednesday. However, most notably on our radar is today’s highly-anticipated release of the White House’s sweeping executive order on AI. More on that below.
What We’re Watching:
What To Expect in Today’s White House EO: The White House today will host a launch event for President Biden’s highly anticipated Executive Order (EO) on AI. The lengthy EO is centered on eight guiding principles around safety, workforce, competition, equality, consumer protections, civil liberties, federal use of AI, and federal leadership on AI. It will also create new government offices and task forces, as well as direct federal agencies to advance American leadership in AI while also setting standards and requiring protections against potential harms from the use of AI technologies. It remains to be seen how Congress and the Administration will continue to work on AI objectives as they relate to regulations for private industry, and if Congress will appropriate funding needed for programs outlined in the EO.
Schumer’s Next Two AI Forums on Wednesday: On the heels of the EO release, Senate Majority Leader Schumer will hold two more AI Insight Forums on Wednesday. This time, the focus will be on workforce protections as well as high-risk AI that can have impacts on discriminatory bias and civil liberties. Just last week, Schumer held his second AI forum focusing on innovation in AI, and concluded that Congress will need to authorize at least $32 billion for AI research. Schumer also highlighted at a Washington Post event following the forum that, while the White House’s EO is extensive, “everyone admits the only real answer is legislative.”
State of Play on Children’s Online Protections: Even though Congress is currently facing a laundry list of must-pass items, many Members are keeping children’s online protections top of mind, but states are not waiting for them to act. Forty-one states last week filed federal suits against Meta over claims that they engaged in misleading consumers about safety features and harmful content, as well as mishandling children’s online data and privacy violations. And twelve states now have their own privacy laws in place, with seven including specific children’s privacy laws. Meanwhile in Congress, the Senate has introduced and debated several children’s privacy bills which have passed respective committees, but without a federal action, several states have sought new measures to address children’s online privacy. It remains unclear if the Senate will take up those bills, and if the House will reintroduce its broader privacy bill, the American Data Privacy Protection Act.
What’s Happening This Week:
Tech Hearings
Tech Events
The Cato Institute - "Government Censorship by Proxy" - Thursday, November 2 at 10:00 AM ET
The Center for a New American Security - "Artificial Intelligence Governance and National Security" - Thursday, November 2 at 4:30 PM ET
The R Street Institute - “Online Content Moderation: Government vs. Private-Sector Solutions" - Thursday, November 2 at 12:00 PM ET
The Center for Strategic and International Studies - "The 2023 Counter Ransomware Initiative" - Friday, November 3 at 10:00 AM ET
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission - "the 2023 Draft Merger Guidelines" - Friday, November 3 at 10:00 AM ET
The Atlantic Council - "Joining forces: Veteran perspectives on cyber and tech workforce development" - Friday, November 3 at 11:00 AM ET
What’s Interesting This Week:
And the Winner Is…. On November 4, 1952, as part of a publicity stunt to help boost sales, Remington Rand collaborated with CBS to have its UNIVAC computer predict the results of the 1952 U.S. presidential election between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson live on air. Because the pre-election polls had the election very close, the publicity surrounding a computer predicting the winner generated a lot of popular interest. UNIVAC correctly predicted a landslide victory by Eisenhower early in the evening after only 3 million votes had been returned and entered into the system. In the end, UNIVAC had come within 3.5% of the popular vote, within 4 electoral votes, and predicted 100-1 odds of the Eisenhower victory.
