US Senate passes bill to form AI Task Force

WASHINGTON: The United States Senate presented a bill that would enable the creation of a task force to examine the United States' policies on artificial intelligence, and specify how best to reduce hazards to privacy, civil freedoms and due process.

The runaway popularity of AI outlets such as ChatGPT and others, which have been used for years to create text, imagery and other content, has spread a rush around the planet to figure out if and how to control its use.

In the US, national security specialists have voiced their apprehensions concerning its use by foreign antagonists, and teachers have grumbled about it being used to fudge in exams and projects.

The job of the AI Task Force, which could contain cabinet members, will be to determine shortfalls in the regulatory supervision of AI and advise reforms if needed.

"There's going to have to be a lot of education around this set of issues because they're not well understood," said Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado. "There's going to be a lot of improvisation and iterative approaches to try to wrestle with this because AI is so new to everyone in the government."

Under the bill, the task force would include an official from the Office of Management and Budget, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Science and Technology Policy as well as privacy and civil liberties officers from the Departments of Justice, State, Treasury, Defense and other executive branch agencies.

Under the terms of the bill, the task force would work for 18 months, issue a final report and then shut down.