<\/a>Dr. Tim Persons, GAO Chief Scientist<\/p><\/div>\n
GAO\u2019s Persons pushed back slightly on Brockman\u2019s assumptions by arguing that, despite exponential increases in computing power, many people in the tech development community were mildly skeptical as to the rate at which general AI would appear. Near the beginning of the hearing, subcommittee members noted a difference between general AI, the type of artificial intelligence which mimics human intelligence to complete many types of tasks, and narrow AI, which is highly application-specific. For example, the narrow AI behind the Siri digital voice assistant can perform natural language processing but isn\u2019t optimized for navigating self-driving cars, and the inverse is true for the narrow AI tech which steers autonomous vehicles. \u201cI think a lot of the driving force here is the concern about general AI and taking over the world,\u201d Persons said. \u201cIt\u2019s just much harder to mimic human intelligence, especially in an environment where intelligence isn\u2019t even really defined or understood.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe issue of AI replacing human workers and putting the U.S. workforce out of jobs came up periodically throughout the hearing. Persons noted that the federal government already had agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which could collect data specific to this issue, though there may need to be new types of data collected or an updated understanding of employment metrics in response to the types of challenges presented by AI to the workforce. Li spoke to the fact that AI technologies wouldn\u2019t replace human workers so much as augment their current work, especially routine tasks performed by workers. She used an example of a nurse in an ICU unit, which she said was a personal example to her because her mother had recently been in an ICU unit. AI tech could assist nurses with charting patient data and computer typing tasks and reduce the time spent away from the care of patients. \u201cNo matter how rapidly we develop the technology, in the most optimistic assessment, it\u2019s very hard to imagine that entire profession of nursing would be replaced,\u201d Li said. \u201cYet within nursing jobs, there are many opportunities that certain tasks can be assisted by AI technology.\u201d Elsewhere, Brockman added that the augmentation of work with AI technology would likely resemble the advent of personal computers from a few decades ago where a wide degree of American workers had to learn how to augment tasks using PCs.<\/span><\/p>\nThe specter of increased Chinese investment into AI tech development was also discussed during the day\u2019s hearing. During his opening remarks, Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX), chair of the House Energy Subcommittee, spoke to the concerns over increased tech investment by China into AI programs and how that threatens U.S. dominance in the field. Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) inquired as to what steps the United States was taking in order to guard against espionage from China, a hot-button issue given the Trump Administration\u2019s actions against China in response to deceptive trade practices. Persons noted that the protection of intellectual property in the AI sphere was critical to reduce the risks of IP theft by foreign actors, especially during a time where Internet access has made it easier to gain unauthorized access to IP. Brockman added that the dialogue on what types of AI-related information could be shared, and that which was too valuable to share, has gotten underway among stakeholders in the field of AI development. Such a dialogue was important, he noted, because a great deal of early AI development has taken place in academic institutions which have an overarching tendency to publish and disseminate their research findings.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the morning of Tuesday, June 26th, both the House Subcommittee on Research and Technology and the House Subcommittee on Energy held a hearing titled Artificial Intelligence – With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. The day\u2019s discussion centered on issues surrounding the nascent technological field of artificial intelligence (AI), including both the potential negative and positive impacts that improved AI technologies could pose to the U.S. workforce and society in general… The specter of increased Chinese investment into AI tech development was also discussed during the day\u2019s hearing. During his opening remarks, Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX), chair of the House Energy Subcommittee, spoke to the concerns over increased tech investment by China into AI programs and how that threatens U.S. dominance in the field. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11764,"featured_media":98845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[274,5519,228,3],"tags":[13301,6513,8768,29309,29304,29308,15164,29307,29310,29305,990,2466,8745,2210,29306,3281,29311,11280,3868,8019],"yst_prominent_words":[20176,29282,29276,29278,29279,20069,29293,29297,29298,29303,29292,29291,29280,29281,29284,29277,29294,19303,29283,16398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98843"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=98843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}