Rep. Lieu: Shutdown fight holding up AI regs

The long road to comprehensive laws governing AI have hit another roadblock, according to a top House Democrat on the technology: the government shutdown fight.

“We’re trying to stop stupid stuff from happening, which means it's really hard to work on AI,” said Rep. Ted Lieu of California, a member of the House Artificial Intelligence Caucus, referring to the shutdown fight.

Lieu has proposed laws to ban the use of AI to autonomously launch nuclear weapons and to create a national commission of AI experts. He said the technology is still too immature to move forward with comprehensive rules, but said more regulation should come eventually.

"I do think there are going to be gaps,” he said, “where you're going to need Congress at some point to step in so we don't have catastrophic harm happen in society.”