Warner urges leading tech firms to handle AI risks as Schumer preps regulatory effort
Emily Jacobs
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Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) raised concerns with CEOs of several tech companies that work with artificial intelligence on Wednesday about the security risks posed by recent industry advancements.
Warner sent identical letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and the chief executives of Stability AI, Midjourney, Anthropic, and Percipient.ai asking how each is addressing such vulnerabilities. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have pushed for regulatory and other reforms on the federal level in recent months as AI advancements have begun to pose risks to national security and education integrity.
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“With the increasing use of AI across large swaths of our economy, and the possibility for large language models to be steadily integrated into a range of existing systems, from healthcare to finance sectors, I see an urgent need to underscore the importance of putting security at the forefront of your work,” Warner wrote.
Warner encouraged the AI innovators to prioritize security measures early on in their product development process and take steps to combat bias and trustworthiness concerns. He argued that as industry leaders, these companies had a responsibility “to ensure that your technology products and systems are secure.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman also told the tech CEOs that “beyond industry commitments, however, it is also clear that some level of regulation is necessary in this field.”
The letter closed with 16 questions about how each company was proactively working to prevent security breaches and misinformation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said earlier this month that he was working on a legislative framework for a larger AI regulatory proposal that could pass with bipartisan support. He claimed that the proposed legislation “outlines a new regulatory regime that would prevent potentially catastrophic damage to our country while simultaneously making sure the U.S. advances and leads in this transformative technology.”
Schumer announced he was working on a proposal as concerns rose about the use of ChatGPT, an AI program that gained notoriety for its ability to write answers to a wide range of queries quickly. High school and college students have been caught using the tool to write paper assignments, causing an academic integrity crisis.
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Countries like Russia have shown an interest in pursuing AI, which has caused additional national security fears. Russian President Vladimir Putin told students in 2017 that whoever led the AI race would most likely “rule the world.” GPT-4 has safeguards to protect users from engaging in illicit conduct, such as seeking information about how to construct bombs.
Christopher Hutton contributed to this report.