Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., agreed with Microsoft President Brad Smith Tuesday on the need for a federal agency to license high-risk AI systems.
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans a hearing on AI policies, potentially to address election security issues, Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., told us Wednesday. Election security and public markets are areas that require “immediate urgency,” Warner said. “There’s a group of us thinking about some of those items.” Ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us he wants to examine what the technology means for national security, defense and cybersecurity.
Microsoft announced its support Wednesday for privacy legislation being considered in Pennsylvania. TechNet told a House Commerce Committee hearing that legislators should tweak the bill to mirror a privacy law passed in Connecticut (see 2205110049).
Antitrust agencies aren’t obligated to provide extensive guidelines to merging parties about what deals might violate the law, DOJ’s Antitrust Division Chief Economist Susan Athey said Tuesday. Athey agreed with comments from panelists who argued it’s not the job of DOJ or the FTC to help companies avoid antitrust laws. She moderated a panel during the first of three co-agency workshops on the draft merger guidelines (see 2309010067).
Republicans have grown more comfortable with allowing consumers a private right of action to sue tech companies, said staffers for the Senate Commerce Committee and House Commerce Committee Tuesday during a panel at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum in Colorado, also livestreamed. A separate Aspen panel debated the future of social media content moderation and the potential for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in (see 2308220048).
There will be a “structured discussion” about how to regulate AI when Congress returns in September, but the most important thing remains passing privacy legislation, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Monday.
The FTC shouldn’t pursue enforcement with state attorneys general as a way to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s elimination of the agency’s redress authority, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote the FTC in comments posted Tuesday.
State legislators should pursue a common set of definitions for AI regulation and fill any gaps left by Congress, state lawmakers from both parties said Thursday.
Sponsors of kids’ privacy legislation have the support of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters Thursday. Blumenthal was scheduled to meet with Schumer just before the start of the August recess (see 2307270058), after the Senate Commerce Committee passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) (S-3663) by voice vote. He was in "active, ongoing conversations" with Senate leadership about moving KOSA, a Blumenthal aide said Monday: Schumer’s office didn’t comment.
The FTC defended its enforcement track record under Chair Lina Khan this week, as detractors criticized her aggressive antitrust approach as being anti-free market.