Washington, D.C. – TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives, today sponsored an event with the Washington Post to discuss AI — the current efforts to govern it, innovative uses of it, and its importance to America’s global competitiveness. The event included leaders from the Administration, Congress, and the tech industry.

During the AI for America panel, TechNet President and CEO Linda Moore interviewed U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) about the importance of getting AI legislation right, the CREATE AI Act, and the evolution of technological innovation since the Congresswoman first took office in 1993.

“AI has been around for a long time. It holds a great deal of promise but also peril. Depending on what Congress does with [AI legislation], we can avoid the peril and enlarge the promise,” said Rep. Eshoo. “There’s great interest on the part of members [of Congress] to educate members. For so many of them, it’s like getting socks on an octopus. There is so much that’s incoming so we’ve worked hard to educate members and their staffs, and I think by bringing in leaders in the industry, experts, you can develop a comfort level [with AI]. You have to understand something before you legislate, otherwise the legislation can be very faulty.”

Representative Eshoo is the author of the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act or CREATE AI Act, which would establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), providing AI researchers and students from diverse backgrounds with greater access to the complex resources, data, and tools needed to develop safe and trustworthy AI. On the legislation, Rep. Eshoo added:

“The CREATE AI Act will democratize AI, which takes enormous data and enormous resources to draw from. The legislation would make those resources available to all sectors. It is bicameral and bipartisan, and I think it is going to move.”

TechNet supports the passage of the CREATE AI Act to ensure NAIRR is authorized, which is a critical step in maintaining U.S. leadership in AI and ensuring America wins the next era of innovation.

The event also included Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, who discussed the importance of the U.S. being the global leader in AI investment, development, and deployment to ensure it is implemented responsibly across the world.

“When we think about an individual has lost their ability to speak and communicate and the ability of AI to give them that, or when we think about the intelligence community being much more effective on rapid indications and warning by using image identification models, we must do that to keep the world safer at a time of such challenges. But we have an equal obligation to put the same creative efforts to ensure we’re deploying that in a safe, responsible way,” said Neuberger.

U.S. Representatives Marcus Molinaro (R-NY) and Don Beyer (D-VA) participated in the Governing AI panel. The two discussed how recognizing and addressing the genuine risks associated with AI is crucial for its responsible development. By addressing these concerns head-on, we can ensure we’re making the most of its benefits for all Americans.

“AI has the possibility to change our lives in untold ways, ways we can’t even imagine. We’re seeing every week the advances in healthcare, the diagnoses of different kinds of cancer, the development of new medicines. We’re all going to live until we’re 120 because of this. But there are also downsides. I think somebody said it the other day, it makes good things much better and bad things much worse. Our job is not to suppress the extraordinary advantages that are going to come from AI, but to make sure we address the known downsides as best we can,” said Rep. Beyer.

“[Artificial intelligence] is an extension of us. I got into this space because of the potential it provides in the intellectual and developmental disability space, neurodivergence, and being able to help individuals who struggled to kind of connect with the world use tech to more adequately and ably do that. I think we acknowledge the broad scope, the broad potential, whether it’s healthcare or national defense, but also the risk to harm humans, the risk to harm people, and the risk to harm institutions,” added Rep. Molinaro.

The event concluded with the AI’s New Solutions panel. AI has the potential to help us solve the greatest challenges of our time. AI is being used to predict severe weather more accurately, protect critical infrastructure, defend against cyber threats, and accelerate the development of new medical treatments, including life-saving vaccines and ways to detect earlier signs of cancer.

Neal Khosla, CEO and co-founder of Curai, an AI-powered healthcare platform, spoke about how his company is using AI to transform healthcare and ensure patients receive better care.

“We quite literally measure where a clinician spends time to deliver care, and we say, ‘Can we build a piece of technology to be either fully assistive or fully automated?’ So, that’s everything from the patient interview to the notes process to follow-up after the visit to checking in on the patient as they start a new medication course,” said Khosla.

TechNet sponsored the event as part of its AI for America initiative. AI for America is a $25 million public affairs initiative to educate the public about how AI is being used to improve lives, grow our economy, and keep us safe. You can learn more at AI4America.com and by following @AI4America across Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

You can watch the full Washington Post event here.

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

  • TechNet launched “AI for America,” a $25 million initiative to educate the public about how AI is being used to improve lives, grow our economy, and keep us safe. The initiative includes broadcast, cable, and digital advertising.
  • TechNet released a comprehensive federal AI policy framework, which included recommendations for protecting consumers’ personal information, 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 submitted comments U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Request for Information (RFI) on the implementations of its responsibilities under the recent Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
  • TechNet submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget on government use of AI.
  • 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 sent a letter to Senate AI leaders on AI and elections.
  • 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 House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in advance of its hearing on AI and healthcare.
  • 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.