Ruben Gallego Calls for Bipartisan Senate Select Committee on AI

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is calling for the Senate to establish a Select Committee on artificial intelligence (AI).

The Context

Earlier this week, former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon said he quit the AI company because he feared the rush to build self-improving artificial intelligence, which could improve itself without human oversight and destroy mankind within the next decade.

Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger echoed the fear, saying the chance of AI self-improving and destroying humanity soon is over ten percent.

Gallego's Letter

As a result, Sen. Gallego wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to establish a select committee on AI to introduce legislation that regulates AI safely without compromising America's dominance in the field.

"AI is likely to be one of the most transformative technologies in human history. It has already accelerated drug discovery, expanded access to expert-level knowledge across numerous different fields, and improved productivity across industries, with one leading estimate suggesting the technology could raise global GDP by as much as 7 percent or nearly $7 trillion over a ten-year period," Sen. Gallego wrote, adding, "But the same technology also presents serious and rapidly evolving challenges to our workforce, national security, elections, privacy, critical infrastructure, children, and the safety of the public."

The Arizona Senator emphasized that "Congress does not need to resolve every disagreement among experts about timelines or probabilities to recognize that both the upside and the downside of this technology warrant an urgent and comprehensive response."

Previous AI Concerns

Gallego has brought attention to the rise of AI in different contexts, writing to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last August about chatbots inappropriately interacting with minors.

Similarly, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has made AI a priority in recent months, first introducing his AI for America plan last September, and most recently introducing four bills in June related to AI in the military and studies of its impacts on the workforce and seniors.