Lamar Smith Quoted in CQ Roll Call on Congressional Efforts to Regulate Artificial Intelligence

CQ Roll Call has quoted Akin Gump senior consultant Lamar Smith in the article “Government Struggles to Rein In Artificial Intelligence Programs,” which reports on congressional efforts to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), a topic Smith knows well after serving as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee during part of his three-decade-plus tenure as a member of Congress. According to the article, lawmakers and regulators are trying to balance AI’s promises and perils.

Regardless of the complexities involved, lobbyists are on top of the technology on behalf of their clients, the article notes, and have stepped up their outreach over AI to lawmakers. The article mentioned the roundtable discussion the firm hosted earlier this year in its Capitol Hill space with lawmakers in the AI Caucus as well as outside stakeholders, and Smith predicts a lot of activity with multiple bills affecting AI having already been introduced.

“I think the government is also rightly concerned about privacy but equally concerned about the misuse of AI, malicious use,” said Smith. “Capitol Hill, Congress, the House and Senate, are just sort of trying to feel their way forward. I think they’re really just at the beginning of information gathering and the self-education process. At this point, we’re just at the beginning of the legislative process.”

Even as lawmakers and regulators start looking for ways to draw boundaries around artificial intelligence, Smith said the technology is moving forward: “Without any question, AI is coming. We need to make sure it’s heading in the right direction.”