A key House member on AI issues said Thursday that the Senate’s recently released AI roadmap aligns closely with the work that lawmakers are doing on the issue in the House.
“The roadmap is very similar to some of the things that we’re talking about on the House side,” Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., said during a Punchbowl News event on May 23. “We hope that we will find some common ground on both sides between both parties.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., last week released a roadmap for AI policy in the Senate. The 31-page document highlights eight AI policy priorities for Senate committees to consider in the 118th Congress “and beyond,” including increased AI funding, risks to the workforce and elections, as well as the need for a Federal privacy law.
“I think that our goals are pretty aligned in terms of what we’re looking for,” Rep. Houchin said of the House and Senate’s work to put guardrails on AI.
Rep. Houchin, who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee’s Working Group on AI, said that rapid innovation in emerging technologies like AI presents things to be concerned about, but “what we found is that it fast-tracks human civilization and it has very much made us all more efficient.”
“There’s always a little bit of concern among the workforce that this is going to put people out of jobs. What we find, though, is that we innovate, and we create new opportunities,” she said. “There’s more reason to be afraid of AI for things like fraud, deep fakes, market manipulation, those kinds of things than I think we probably have in the workforce, but I understand the concern.”
Rep. Houchin said one priority area for her is not leaving small businesses and rural America – including small towns like her own in Indiana – behind.
“When I was a state legislator, there were parts of my state that did not have access to the internet. And so now we’re talking about making sure all states have access to the internet, but on top of that, we have AI,” Rep. Houchin said.
“When I was talking to our governor about the lack of internet access in my state, that has an impact on agriculture and education, in small businesses and entrepreneurship, and AI is the same way,” she said. “I think it can help small businesses compete with larger companies, and that’s good for a small town in Indiana.”
