While a new day dawns January 20, inauguration day for Donald Trump, AI is still a hot topic working its way through the government.
The censorship and coercion/collusion between the Biden administration and social media companies are still fresh in the minds, and certain language in the report sets off warning bells.
But on the whole it’s a good start, Robert Salvador, the CEO of Digibuild AI, said on American Family Radio Wednesday.
“It’s definitely promising to see the government understanding the importance of AI and not overlooking it or being behind. The age of AI is here. However, as with anything that the government and Congress gets involved in, I do worry a little bit about overregulation,” Salvador told show host Jenna Ellis.
The task force emphasizes the need for guardrails and standards to prevent bad actors from exploiting AI while also promoting innovation and economic growth.
It’s important to strike a balance between the benefits of AI and potential risks including job displacement, algorithmic bias, and cybersecurity threats, the task force found.
There is certain language in the report that “talks about misinformation, disinformation, fact checkers, and we all know how that was applied to conservatives in the Biden administration,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Ellis.
Zuckerberg sums it up
Facebook founder and CEO Marck Zuckerberg confirmed the censorship.
“Mark Zuckerberg sent me a letter, and he said in that letter the Biden administration pressured us to censor. We did it. We're sorry, and we won't do it again,” Jordan said.
Even though the government is changing hands to conservative control, lawmakers need to be on guard against censorship.
“So we know this censorship stuff was going on, and there's a whole new coalition coming together," Jordan said. "We’ve got to be real careful about big government trying to somehow curtail AI and say, ‘Oh, AI’s got to have these fact checkers,' which we know how left-leaning those individuals are."
Industry leaders get nervous when they hear buzzwords like safety and guardrails.
AI can do a lot of things, but Salvador disputes the idea that it can become autonomous and operate outside of human control.
“All that is really garbage and it’s just not true,” he said. “We should be careful not to overregulate and get into a position like you’ve seen with some other technologies, especially with the current administration, where government is more blocking them and hindering them,” he said.
The report shows good intentions from the task force “so far,” Salvador said.
Trump has called for a “digital bill of rights” that he says would create digital due process, require transparency in content moderation, and allow the ability to opt-out of curation algorithms.
It’s part of his broader plan to promote free speech and address concerns about censorship, government surveillance and the perception of bias of big tech and media companies toward conservatives.
AI’s role in current funding talks
AI is already helping the government in a number of ways including with the ongoing continuing resolution discussions in the House, Salvador said.
“They put out this 1,500-page bill a day or two before the vote is supposed to happen. It’s literally impossible for anyone to know the dollar amounts or know the specifics of how those funds are administered and how those funds make it into the market,” Salvador said.
Through AI the bill is able to be condensed into roughly 150 paragraphs showing funding amounts and how they’re allocated.
“So that can be used up and down government. AI can be brought in to introduce transparency, whether it's in budgets, whether it's in putting together proper usage of funds, or is it just some piece of pork that they're putting there? So that's one of the things and one of the reasons that I think AI is going to be helpful in the future with these bills,” Salvador said.
