Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives, drove conversation around critical AI news in Washington last week, including the White House’s Executive Order (EO) on AI and the Copyright Office’s inquiry on AI policy issues.

TechNet President and CEO Linda Moore attended the EO signing ceremony and spoke with The New York Times, CNET, Axios, and Scripps News about the event and TechNet’s comprehensive AI Federal Policy Framework, which Politico Morning Tech previewed. Later in the week, TechNet submitted comments to the U.S. Copyright Office on its recent inquiry regarding AI policy issues, as covered in Bloomberg Law. 

See the coverage below:

The New York Times: The Global Race to Regulate Artificial Intelligence Is Heating Up

Tech representatives welcomed the move. Linda Moore, C.E.O. of the industry group TechNet, told DealBook that the Biden administration was “providing a really good foundation for A.I. policy,” especially when Congress was deadlocked amid the leadership vacuum in the House.

CNET: AI and You: White House Preps Executive Order, the Beatles Revive Lost Lennon Song

There are many opinions about what and how much regulation the US and other governments should create to oversee AI tech, particularly generative or conversational AI like ChatGPT. TechNet, a bipartisan lobbying group for the tech industry, released a five-page Federal AI Policy Framework outlining the policies it sees as necessary to regulate AI “while allowing America to maintain its global AI leadership.” Meanwhile, AI thought leaders, including some who are considered the “godfathers” of AI like ex-Googler Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, released an open letter on Oct. 16 calling on governments to manage AI risks.

TechNet, whose members include Amazon, Apple, Box, Cisco, Dell, eBay, Google, HP, Meta, Samsung, Verizon and Zoom, is calling for, among other things:

  • Protecting consumers’ personal information.
  • Appointing a central coordinator for the federal government’s development, deployment and use of AI systems.
  • Disclosing to users when content is created using generative AI.
  • Adopting measures to identify, track and mitigate unintended bias and discrimination.

“Our AI policy recommendations are the result of our member companies’ decades of knowledge and experience,” TechNet CEO Linda Moore said in a statement. The group also launched a $25 million public information campaign called AI For America to “promote AI’s current and future benefits and educate and inform Americans on how AI is already improving their lives, growing our economy, and keeping us safe.”

Axios: Biden signs AI executive order, sparking agency work

TechNet president Linda Moore said that the EO “will strengthen America’s AI leadership” by bolstering the country’s workforce, lowering the barrier to entry for AI research through a pilot of the National AI Resource Center, strengthening cyber defenses and improving health care and education. 

Politico: Politico Morning Technology 

FIRST IN MT: TechNet’s AI Framework: Ahead of the Biden administration’s release on Monday of an executive order on AI, TechNet today released a comprehensive federal framework on the policy recs for AI regulation. It focuses on addressing potential risks while maintaining U.S. global leadership on the technology.

Scripps News: Morning Rush

Moore: “Yesterday was the most sweeping action, broadest action that we’ve seen in recent memory. It [White House EO on AI] will definitely put in place new regulations that will govern AI going forward.”

Moore: “U.S. tech companies…already have been putting in place their own internal regulations. The President has announced those voluntary commitments from the tech companies to make sure that the safety and security, the testing and the evaluation of their systems, is on track and they want to also make sure…that they protect privacy.”

Moore: “The U.S. tech companies like to say, AI is too important not to regulate. So you definitely see companies with a motivation to use this in all sorts of instances in business, but it also has great societal benefits…”

Bloomberg Law: Tech Group Warns AI Copyright Rules Could Send Innovation Abroad 

TechNet argued that using copies of copyright-protected material to train AI models doesn’t qualify as the kind of copying that violates copyright law. A statutory licensing scheme to govern machine learning would create an “intractable economic problem” and incentivize technology companies to take their billions of dollars of investment capital to “more innovation friendly” jurisdictions, the industry group said in a statement. It added that required disclosure of training materials would force companies to disclose trade secrets to foreign AI developers.

Additional background on TechNet’s recent actions and leadership on AI policy:

  • TechNet released a comprehensive federal AI policy framework, which included recommendations for protecting the personal information of consumers, promoting innovation and our global competitiveness, identifying unintended bias and discrimination, and investing in upskilling and workforce training programs.
  • TechNet issued a statement on President Biden’s Executive Order on artificial intelligence.
  • TechNet submitted robust comments to the U.S. Copyright Office on AI and copyright law.
  • TechNet launched “AI For America,” a $25 million public affairs initiative to promote AI’s current and future benefits and educate and inform Americans on how AI is already improving their lives, growing our economy, and keeping us safe.
  • John Doerr, TechNet co-founder and Executive Council member and Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, and Steve Case, TechNet Executive Council member and Chairman and CEO of Revolution, recently participated in a Senate AI Insight Forum focused on innovation and global competitiveness.
  • TechNet hosted a marquee event on Capitol Hill that brought together over 250 interested parties and 25 expert speakers to discuss the positive impact AI is having and will have on all Americans from every walk of life. Congressman Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Google DeepMind Senior Research Director Douglas Eck, Getaround Founder and CEO Sam Zaid, Nasdaq Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer Brad Peterson, and other industry leaders participated. You can watch the event here.
  • TechNet submitted comments to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) urging them to enforce their existing authority on “fraudulent misrepresentation” and bar deliberately misleading campaign communications generated with AI.
  • TechNet submitted comments to the Office of Science and Technology Policy as they were developing their National AI Strategy.
  • TechNet submitted comments to the Office of Science and Technology Policy on automated systems in the workplace.
  • TechNet submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on AI system accountability measures and policies.