Representative Lori Trahan urges Congress to pass federal AI laws, citing a lack of safety auditors and federal authority

Lots to like here, inc. on auditing!

Post SB 315 endorsement by various stakeholders, it seems like the missing ingredient is urgency + flexibility from the White House.

The main risk I worry about w a near term deal is DOJ enforcement, though IIUC this is solvable… (cont’d)

Interesting op-ed from @RepLoriTrahan about Congress issuing an AI law imminently- and she’s working on an AI bill with @JayObernolte that I’m hearing could come out as soon as this week 👇

I agree, but AI is a very fast moving technology where best practices might evolve at a pace that way exceeds congress’ ability to act, and this is what worries me about preemption. There are potential solutions but I’m not seeing a lot of serious discussion of this problem right now.

…by decoupling “where do standards come from” from “who can enforce,” and allowing state AGs to bring cases even if DOJ won’t (a la federal KOSA).

This would make sure federal expertise is brought to bear on a single standard, while at least somewhat reducing politicization.

@RepLoriTrahan

@glenweyl @hamandcheese yeah, but neither of us support blanket moratoria with no preemptive standard.

@deanwball Autonomous vehicle services, like TNCs, should broadly be permitted by states (rather than cities) with vehicle design handled by the Feds (like current vehicle standards). But that approach also doesn’t disagree with your argument here.

@RepLoriTrahan So let me get this straight Lori

You like federal laws or you don’t like them because you don’t seem to abide by federal immigration laws. What good are laws when people encourage people to break those laws and act lawlessly.

Kind of seems like you’re wasting a lot of time

@anton_d_leicht I think many of us who opposed sweeping preemption are happy to wait until the legislative text comes out and then evaluate it on the merits, would be hard to form an assessment prior to that.

P.S. Reading more carefully (I was distracted by excitement at the embedded auditor thing), I'm not sure if what I said is different from what the op-ed says - "federal and state regulators should be empowered to enforce and update those requirements as the technology evolves."

@deanwball @hamandcheese I would have similar words for those who support blanket preemption especially ahead of a federal standard. One of the amazing things about these tools are how steerable they are and thus how well they are suited to federalism.

@anton_d_leicht Is there a reason we’re acting like Dean Ball wasn’t a part of the hardline preemption-supporting faction last year?

@deanwball @AdrienLE What about setting minimum standards on safety practices? I think that meets your five criteria. Maybe you’d consider it on the table for a near-term federal deal?

It also later mentions "federal and state enforcers."

So, this actually is a stronger proposal than I thought on a first read.

On second look, my main remaining Q is about minimum safety/security standards (i.e. what if companies' policies suck).

@RepLoriTrahan Congress likely doesn't have a clue...and I don't trust their unelected staffers. For now we're stuck with hoping that the leaders of the frontier companies "do good"...the problem with having not enough new young blood in that institution.

@ClownParty0000 @RepLoriTrahan BahahahahahahhHHaha- the useless tall giraffe 🦒 imagine her in Japan?!?

@deanwball I'm fine with preemption if it included reasonable AI safety proposals. When preemption first came up the idea was to stop states from legislating AI with nothing in hand at all but an IOU. None should accept this kind of deal.

The federal government may properly regulate AI when it is engaging in interstate commerce.

Until then, the Tenth Amendment:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

@malleus_returns @RepLoriTrahan They're anti-American. We've know for a long time.