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     * Newsletter: May 17, 2023

Senators: Only Companies With A Government-Approved License Should Be Able To
Offer Generative AI Tools

   Gatekeeping so that AI is controlled by powerful corporations who will
   impose restrictions at the behest of the government.

     * [7]By Tom Parker
     * Posted 3:22 pm

   [8]Share

   Several senators suggested that generative AI tools should be
   restricted and that only companies with a government-approved license
   should be able to provide the software during a Tuesday Senate
   Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Oversight of A.I.: Rules for
   Artificial Intelligence.”

   Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, testified during the hearing and agreed
   with the push for AI access to be restricted via licensing.

   During his opening statement, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
   lamented that Congress failed to regulate social media and said: “Now
   we have the obligation to do it on AI before the threats and risks
   become real.”
   [9]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/blumenthal-ai-obligation.mp
   4

   Blumenthal continued by proposing “limitations on use” where “the risk
   of AI is so extreme,” bans where the AI makes “decisions that affect
   people’s livelihoods.” He also called for AI companies to be held
   liable when they “cause harm.”
   [10]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/blumenthal-ai-limitations-
   bans.mp4

   Altman noted that OpenAI makes “significant efforts to ensure that
   safety is built into our systems at all levels” in his opening
   statement.

   He added that GPT-4, the latest version of the large language model
   that powers OpenAI’s generative AI tool, ChatGPT, is more likely to
   refuse “harmful requests” than any other widely deployed model of
   similar capability.

   Altman then called for a US government licensing regime that applies to
   the development and release of AI models above a certain capability
   threshold. Additionally, he welcomed AI companies partnering with
   governments and said that as part of these partnerships, companies and
   governments should examine “opportunities for global coordination.”
   [11]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/sam-altman-ai-opening-stat
   ement.mp4

   Altman’s written testimony, which he pointed to during his opening
   statement, also contained a strong call for a federal government
   licensing scheme:

     “It is vital that AI companies—especially those working on the most
     powerful models–adhere to an appropriate set of safety requirements,
     including internal and external testing prior to release and
     publication of evaluation results. To ensure this, the U.S.
     government should consider a combination of licensing or
     registration requirements for development and release of AI models
     above a crucial threshold of capabilities, alongside incentives for
     full compliance with these requirements.”

   This written testimony also recommended that AI licensing regulations
   be deployed on a global scale.

   Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) agreed with Altman’s suggestion that AI
   companies should have to obtain a license from the government and
   proposed that a new agency should be responsible for governing AI and
   licensing. He also envisioned empowering this agency to put AI
   companies out of business if they don’t adhere to the standards imposed
   by the government.

   “We need to empower an agency that issues a license and can take it
   away,” Graham said. “Wouldn’t that be some incentive to do it right if
   you could actually be taken out of business?”

   Altman responded: “Clearly that should be part of what an agency can
   do.”
   [12]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/graham-ai-license-1.mp4
   [13]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/graham-ai-license-2.mp4

   The idea of restricting AI via licensing came up again when Senator
   John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Altman for his AI regulation recommendations.
   Altman proposed forming a new agency that can hand out licenses and
   take them away based on “safety standards.”
   [14]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/kennedy-altman-ai-license.
   mp4

   Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) brought up licensing when questioning the
   witnesses and asked NYU Professor Emeritus Gary Marcus what type of
   regulation scheme he would contemplate. Marcus recommended a similar
   licensing scheme to the one proposed by Altman where companies “have to
   make a safety case” to get a license.
   [15]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/hirono-marcus-ai-license.m
   p4

   Altman continued to push for licensing when asked about the scope of AI
   regulations by Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA). The OpenAI CEO suggested that
   companies should have to obtain a license when they surpass a
   “threshold of compute” or when they surpass “capability thresholds.”
   [16]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/ossoff-altman-ai-threshold
   s.mp4

   When Senator Korey Booker (D-NJ) raised concerns about the corporate
   concentration of the generative AI space, which is currently dominated
   by the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, [17]Google-backed Anthropic, and
   Google’s Bard AI chatbot, Altman revealed the endgame of the licensing
   regime that he’s pushing for. He acknowledged that while there will
   likely be many models, “there will be a relatively small number of
   providers that can make models at the true edge.”

   Marcus followed up by warning about the risk of “technocracy combined
   with oligarchy where a small number of companies influence people’s
   beliefs through the nature of these systems.”
   [18]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/booker-ai-corporate-concen
   tration.mp4

   Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) expressed support for creating an agency
   that oversees AI.

   “You don’t build a nuclear reactor without getting a license,” he said.
   “You don’t build an AI system without getting a license. It gets tested
   independently.”

   Altman agreed with Welch, describing it as “a great analogy.” Marcus
   told Welch that there would need to be both “pre-deployment and
   post-deployment” licenses.
   [19]https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/welch-ai-license.mp4

   You can watch the full hearing and access written testimony [20]here.

   While several senators and Altman are fans of a government licensing
   scheme that dictates which companies are allowed to build the AI
   systems that are used by the public, such a scheme would likely
   entrench the dominant companies.

   Big Tech and large corporations with more resources and better
   connections would find it easy to obtain licenses. Meanwhile, small
   businesses, startups, or individual developers with limited resources
   would find it harder to get a license.

   The fact that influential AI companies, such as OpenAI, already have
   the ear of the lawmakers that would implement an AI licensing scheme
   also gives the dominant companies an avenue through which they can
   exert influence and potentially shape the licensing scheme to benefit
   them while excluding competitors.

   Licensing could also restrict free speech. Much of the justification
   for licensing during the hearing was centered around preventing “harm”
   — a far-reaching, subjective term that’s been used many times to
   justify [21]censorship on Big Tech platforms and [22]government
   censorship. If such a scheme were implemented, governments could decide
   that truthful but inconvenient content is harmful and make censoring
   such content a condition of licensing.

   Defend free speech and individual liberty online.

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   9. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/blumenthal-ai-obligation.mp4
  10. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/blumenthal-ai-limitations-bans.mp4
  11. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/sam-altman-ai-opening-statement.mp4
  12. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/graham-ai-license-1.mp4
  13. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/graham-ai-license-2.mp4
  14. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/kennedy-altman-ai-license.mp4
  15. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/hirono-marcus-ai-license.mp4
  16. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/ossoff-altman-ai-thresholds.mp4
  17. https://reclaimthenet.org/google-backed-ai-tool-finds-ways-to-increase-moral-awareness
  18. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/booker-ai-corporate-concentration.mp4
  19. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/welch-ai-license.mp4
  20. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/oversight-of-ai-rules-for-artificial-intelligence
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