Bill to create bipartisan commission on regulating AI expected later this month

Speaking on the sidelines of an industry conference, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said he will introduce the bipartisan legislation later this month.

By Nihal Krishan

June 7, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 13, 2022: Rep. Ted W. Lieu (D-CA), incoming vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus (C), Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) incoming Democratic Caucus chair (L) and incoming Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) (R) speak during a press conference with incoming House Democratic Leadership at the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Congressman Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said Wednesday that later this month he will introduce bipartisan legislation that would create an artificial intelligence blue-ribbon bipartisan commission or a jury of experts to make policy and legal recommendations on how best to regulate AI.

“I’m working on bipartisan legislation to create a blue-ribbon bipartisan commission to make recommendations as to what kinds of AI we might want to regulate and how we might want to go about doing that because then that report of recommendations will be public and transparent,” Lieu told FedScoop on the sidelines of the AWS Public Summit in Washington.

Lieu, who is a member of the Artificial Intelligence Caucus and one of three members of Congress with a computer science degree, has taken an increasingly prominent role in AI policymaking and leadership in Congress.

“The bill would allow the Senate and the House and both parties plus the President to appoint members. It would be equally bipartisan, and it sets certain requirements. So you’ve got to appoint both private and public sector people and so on and that will be introduced sometime later this month,” Lieu added.

The bill is being co-led by Republican Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who with Lieu in April introduced the bipartisan Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act, legislation aimed at safeguarding the nuclear command and control process from any future change in policy in order to prevent AI from making nuclear launch decisions.

The Artificial Intelligence Caucus was created in 2017 to help educate members and their staff on the technological, economic and social impacts of advances in the technology.

Earlier this year, Lieu introduced the first measure in Congress that was written entirely by the popular online AI tool ChatGPT with a nonbinding resolution on how to comprehensively regulate AI in Congress.

Lieu’s congressional office is also one of the first not to have restrictions on the use of ChatGPT within its internal functions for any and all purposes, the California congressman said.

He highlighted that federal agencies need to be given the power and resources to better tackle the risks and concerns associated with AI, which he hopes a new blue-ribbon commission could help with.

“So I think we need to get more regulators in our federal agencies who are more cognizant and attuned to the unique risks and aspects of AI,” Lieu said.