President Joe Biden issued a sweeping executive order last month aimed at imposing federal regulations on artificial intelligence (AI)—what Carl Szabo of the tech lobbying group NetChoice called an"AI red tape wishlist." Many observers fear that Biden's requirements could evolve into a centralized, innovation-stifling licensing scheme for new AI systems. As the R Street Institute's Adam Thierer notes, the executive order would "empower agencies to gradually convert [current] voluntary guidance and other amorphous guidelines into a sort of back-door regulatory regime."
That would be just peachy with Sens. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.). Their "Bipartisan Framework for U.S. AI Act," introduced earlier this year, explicitly calls for a "licensing regime administered by an independent oversight body." This A.I. bureaucracy "would have the authority to audit companies seeking licenses and cooperating with other enforcers such as state Attorneys General. The entity should also monitor and report on technological developments and economic impacts of AI."
