There's A Time For Everything Including AI Regulation

As increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence systems with the potential to reshape society come online, many experts, lawmakers and even executives of top A.I. companies want the U.S. government to regulate the technology, and fast, according to The NYTimes.

“We should move quickly,” Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, which launched an A.I.-powered version of its search engine this year, said in May. “There’s no time for waste or delay,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has said. “Let’s get ahead of this,” said Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican.

Yet history suggests that comprehensive federal regulation of advanced A.I. systems probably won’t happen soon. Congress and federal agencies have often taken decades to enact rules governing revolutionary technologies, from electricity to cars. “The general pattern is it takes a while,” said Matthew Mittelsteadt, a technologist who studies A.I. at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

In the 1800s, it took Congress more than half a century after the introduction of the first public, steam-powered train to give the government the power to set price rules for railroads, the first U.S. industry subject to federal regulation. In the 20th century, the bureaucracy slowly expanded to regulate radio, television and other technologies. And in the 21st century, lawmakers have struggled to safeguard digital data privacy.

It’s possible that policymakers will defy history. Members of Congress have worked furiously in recent months to understand and imagine ways to regulate A.I., holding hearings and meeting privately with industry leaders and experts. Last month, President Biden announced voluntary safeguards agreed to by seven leading A.I. companies.