The US Senate is holding a closed door forum on Artificial Intelligence today (Wednesday) with about two dozen tech executives including Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg among the invitees.
On Tuesday, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich was part of a Washington Post online forum to discuss possible upcoming policy regarding AI.
He was joined by South Dakoda Republican Senator Mike Rounds, who along with Heinirich co-chairs the Senate AI Caucus.
Heinirich says there needs to be a bipartisan effort to dig into what kind of regulations are needed regarding artificial intelligence.
“It’s an effort to make sure that our colleagues are getting information directly from some of these leaders and it’s just one more example of that,” he said. “There are going to be many more down the road and we want to make sure that all of the folks who have a seat at the table who have a stake in this are heard by our colleagues and that we have the best possible information to be able to legislate in this space.”
Having the meeting out of the eyes of the public and the media has raised some skepticism among Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
During the meeting, which was organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Shummer, Senators will only be able to submit questions in written form.
Democratic Senator Elizebeth Warren told NBC News the tech billionaires just want to be able to lobby the Senate behind closed doors with no questions asked.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley said it was ridiculous that the summit is closed to the press.
Schumer defended his decision on the Senate Floor on Tuesday. He says the meeting is part of a series of forums that will run through the fall. Rounds, who is co-moderating the forum, says the idea is to get as much information as possible and that many others besides the tech giants, including the Screen Writers Guild, the Motion Pictures Association and Teachers Unions will be participating in the forums.