Schumer’s slow-walk on AI ‘regulation’ is a nothing but a boon for Big Tech 

Artificial intelligence poses serious risks to privacy and safety, and we urgently need protective federal regulation in the United States. The European Union and China have already taken steps to protect their citizens. But, yet again, the U.S. efforts have been slow — and, to be frank, embarrassing.  In an unfortunate turn of events, any efforts to move forward with AI legislation in Congress requires the support of one man: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).  Last spring, Schumer made a series of high-profile announcements to show he was serious about tackling AI. Since then, the few concrete actions Schumer has taken have yet to produce results, and have been overly reliant on the very industry insiders who need to be reined in by regulation.   Now, at long last, we have the Schumer AI report, and it is a clown car of the obvious, vague and toothless.  Schumer himself has acknowledged the risks of letting regulation be driven by a “few big powerful companies” — deep-pocketed Big Tech CEOs — and publicly vowed not to let that happen. And yet he appears to value their opinion over anyone else’s.  So what has he done?  Schumer hosted a set of secretive, closed-door insight “forums” — invite-only, featuring tech CEOs and others who are already banking big money off AI in a Wild West environment. These forums were unprecedented in nature: he locked out reporters, the public, and numerous experts who have contributed to the large evidence base about the impacts of AI that need to be…Schumer’s slow-walk on AI ‘regulation’ is a nothing but a boon for Big Tech