Thune’s history leading on AI policy suggests action next Congress
On Wednesday, Sen. John Thune won his election as Senate Majority Leader for the 119th Congress. Over the past Congress, Senator Thune served on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has spent the most time in the Senate considering AI legislation. Sen. Thune also teamed up with Sen. Amy Klobuchar to introduce bipartisan AI legislation creating federal standards aimed at providing transparency and accountability for AI tools.
“Sen. Thune is a leader on one of the biggest policy issues the next Congress will take up: artificial intelligence,” said ARI Senior VP of Government Affairs Satya Thallam. “This is someone who has thought a lot about what it’s going to take to put America first on AI, both in terms of innovation and global leadership. With Sen. Thune at the helm, expect to see big developments in AI policymaking next year.”
Sen. Thune’s bill, the Artificial Intelligence Research, Innovation, and Accountability Act (S. 3312), would require both NIST and the Commerce Department to establish guidelines and a certification process for critical-impact AI systems.
Sen. Thune has described his legislation as a “light-touch” approach to AI governance. It would constitute the first major federal AI governance law if Thune can successfully shepherd it through the legislative process. Thune has also discussed the need to lead on AI and AI policy in the context of the United States’ competition with the Chinese Communist Party.
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at responsibleinnovation.org.