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In an era of political polarization, according to U.S. Sen. Todd Young, Congress remains united on this point: America must prevail against China in the fast-developing field of artificial intelligence.
“In hands other than America’s, AI could usher in an era of unchecked surveillance and random censorship,” said Young, R-Indiana, who was the keynote speaker at IBJ’s Technology Power Breakfast on Monday. “It could be fashioned into propaganda to spread division among American citizens that will pale in comparison to what we see on social media today and eliminate what little trust is still left in many of our public institutions.”
“AI is a cross-party issue in Congress. It oftentimes seems that there are none left. But at least so far, this issue has not been politicized,” Young said.
Monday’s event also featured a series of fireside chat-style discussions with state lawmakers, business leaders and a computer scientist on topics including AI, quantum computing and robotics.
Young was part of a bipartisan working group in the U.S. Senate which last year came up with what it sees as the Senate’s most important policy priorities with regards to AI. The other members of the group were Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York; Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota; and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico.
Those policy priorities including increasing the funding for AI innovation, ensuring the enforcement of existing laws for AI, establishing a federal framework for data privacy and other priorities related to national security and workforce impacts, among others.
Young emphasized the need to strike a balance between encouraging innovation and developing necessary guardrails.
The big-picture goal, Young said, is to assure that AI developed with American values in mind is the version of technology that sets the world standard.
Just as we were unwilling to stand by just a couple of generations ago and let the Soviet Union place its flag on the moon, so too, we must not allow the Chinese Communist Party to brand this technology in this age with its own standard,” Young said. “And the course we set now will determine in the decades to come if this age of AI will be one of peace among nations, prosperity widely felt, or instead an age of chaos, an age of destruction and the supremacy of authoritarians. I really believe this much is at stake.”
The other speakers at Monday’s event:
- Indiana Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, and Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, who discussed the development of rural broadband in Indiana;
- hC1 founder and CEO Brad Bostic, who talked about how his company is using medical lab data and artificial intelligence to improve patient health outcomes;
- Sooyeon Jeong, a Purdue University computer scientist who detailed work using AI to make robots more human-like in their interactions with people; and
- Quantum Corridor Inc. CEO Tom Dakich, who talked about his company’s efforts to build a statewide network to support quantum computing.
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TRUMP threatened to kill Sen Todd Young’s CHIP Act in his tirade at Congress Speech .
What Trump says is different every 5 minutes so basically everything he says is a lie at some point… until he does something and then it isn’t.
What you have to watch is what Trump does and as far are I can tell, he is whipsawing the US economy and the world into a global economic slide.
Yeah, agree with Senator Young about this being important issue, HOWEVER…..other major issues that affect the safety of citizens here in USA include accountability for DOGE/Elon, democracy and preserving legislative power in congress, US being leader of free world, access to Healthcare, clean air/water, safe food and prescription medications. Saw a documentary on Winston Churchill recently. He would roll in his grave if got a glimpse of today’s republican party and their attack on democratic institutions, freedom of speech/press, and overall decency. History will judge harshly on him and other republicans.
Yes guardrails are very much needed on Trump and Musk, or whoever is in charge of DO(d)GE today. Now the trump inJustice Department is arresting person with whom he disagrees. When will Joe Goebbels be leading the trump PR campaing?