Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., joined the Atlantic Council today for a discussion on the global risks facing the next president, but when it comes to ensuring that adequate AI regulation passes Congress, the senator said that no matter who wins, “don’t hold your breath.”
Sen. Warner explained that when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hosted insight forums last year with top tech CEOs to discuss possible regulations for AI, they all agreed that regulations were necessary.
However, Sen. Warner explained, “They all say they want regulation until you put words on a page.”
“I am deeply engaged with a lot of these companies. I’m saying, ‘You guys have got to be for something.’ Now, do you do what the Europeans have overdone? We’ve done nothing. There is somewhere in the middle [for], I think, smart regulation,” the senator said.
Nevertheless, Sen. Warner stressed that the United States needs to implement some sort of regulation so that our adversaries can’t use AI tools to “mess with our markets and our elections.”
Similarly, the senator said that a company he believes “will be on people’s lips going forward” is Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) – which is a People’s Republic of China (PRC) biotechnology company.
“They’re on my radar because I think the place where AI could have the most effect is in biolife sciences,” Sen. Warner said. “AI can unlock the language of DNA, and because they can do that at speed and scale, it’s unprecedented.”
“Well, to have that happen, you need a hell of a lot of DNA, and BGI is basically scooping up DNA samples at an unprecedented level … and getting access to some of our information,” he added. “BGI is to bio what Huawei is to telco.”
The senator concluded by saying that it can often be “hard to break through” to some of his colleagues in Congress about the geopolitical relevance of these technology issues.
“If I have one overriding effort as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, it’s to redefine national security so it’s no longer just viewed as who has the most tanks and planes and guns. But really, national security now is a technology race with China,” Sen. Warner said.
