/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25652999/2166799673.jpg?w=696&resize=696,0&ssl=1 "Senator Laphonza Butler thinks supporting Substantial AI or human workers is a ‘false choice’")
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Representing California in Congress presents a unique challenge: steering national policy while reflecting the interests of the most populous U.S. state, including a huge tech electorate. It’s a challenge that both current California Senator Laphonza Butler and Vice President Kamala Harris, who previously held the title, have taken up. Right now, ruling the tech world means taking on artificial intelligence.
Congress has made little progress on a national framework for regulating generative artificial intelligence. But California is the epicenter of the artificial intelligence industry, home to companies such as OpenAI and Google. On the national stage, Harris has served as the Biden administration’s artificial intelligence czar, leading discussions with industry players and civil society leaders on how to regulate the issue. Butler, who has a long history with the vice presidentfocuses on a specific problem: the impact of artificial intelligence systems on work and social justice.
Butler talked to Edge about balancing the interests of AI companies and those impacted by their products, including workers who fear losing their jobs to automation. “It all starts with listening,” says Butler, a former labor leader. “It starts with listening to both developers, communities that could potentially be negatively impacted, and the spaces where opportunities exist.”
Like many officials, Butler says he wants to lend a hand protect Americans from the potential dangers of artificial intelligence without limiting the opportunities that could arise from it. She praised both Schumer and the Biden administration for “creating spaces for communities to enjoy [a] voice.” In both cases, labor and civil society leaders were hired in addition to top AI industry executives to educate and engage in space regulation.
Butler insists lawmakers don’t have to make “false choices” between the interests of executives at artificial intelligence companies and the people who make up the workforce. “Listening is essential because it balances everyone’s interests, but the goal must be to do the most good for the greatest number of people. And in my opinion, decision-makers will always land at this stage.”
California State Sen. Scott Wiener has made similar statements about his hotly contested state-level bill SB 1047. The bill, which would require whistleblower protections and safeguards against potentially catastrophic events at large artificial intelligence companies, has made it all the way to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bill. desk before it is vetoed, and companies like OpenAI warn it will slow down innovation. In AugustWiener argued that “we can accelerate both innovation and security; The two are not mutually exclusive.” So far, however, lawmakers are struggling to strike a balance between the two.
Butler applauds the steps both Schumer and the Biden-Harris administration have taken so far to create appropriate guardrails for artificial intelligence, but says there is “always more to do.” Earlier this year, Schumer unveiled a roadmap for AI policymaking (though not specifically introducing actual legislation), and the White House secured voluntary commitments from AI companies to safely develop the technology.
One of Butler’s latest achievements is Act on workers of the futurewhich she presented to Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI). The bill would direct the Department of Labor, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education to study the impact of artificial intelligence on job sectors and create a $250 million grant program to prepare workers for the skills they will need in the future. especially in industries where there is a risk of job relocation.
“We hope that both in preparing today’s workforce and in preparing tomorrow’s workforce that we will be able to take advantage of the full opportunity of implementing artificial intelligence,” says Butler.
Butler sees this as a moment in U.S. history when policymakers could “get ahead of what we know will be the ultimate disruption and try to create a pipeline of opportunities that can once again lend a hand both sides stabilize our economies by creating a level playing field.”
Butler, however, is realistic about the dynamics of Congress and the upcoming elections in just over a month. “We both know that the 118th Congress is coming to an end quickly and there is a lot of business ahead of us,” he says. Butler believes lawmakers still need to have important conversations with people on different sides of the issue before comprehensive AI regulations are introduced. He also notes the minor issue of “surviving the next presidential election in November.”