CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Why we need a Federal Artificial Intelligence Commission

Image by Markus Winkler.

Radio was introduced commercially in 1920, when the Westinghouse Corp. launched station KDKA in Pittsburg. Other stations followed. Because transmission frequencies could be chosen arbitrarily, stations interfered with one another’s broadcasts. The system became chaotic; listeners could hear two stations simultaneously. The Federal government stepped in with the Radio Act of 1927, which created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) to assign frequencies, limit interference, and regulate ownership. Most important, this act declared that the airwaves belonged to the public.

More regulations followed in 1934. The Communications Act established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the trustee of the airwaves, the public’s asset. The FCC issued licenses and enacted regulations that required broadcasters to operate in the “public interest, convenience or necessity” and restricted program content by excluding obscene, and indecent language. They also limited station ownership, required sponsors to identify themselves and required equal opportunities for political candidates.

Because television is broadcast on public airwaves, it is also subject to FCC regulation. These rules could not, however, apply to cable television, which is transmitted over private networks.

The internet began as in the 1960s as a US government funded program ARPANET, within the Department of Defense. The project developed a network for sharing information between researchers. The benefits of this sharing method were obvious and reached well beyond the research communities. By 1995 the internet was fully commercialized. Unlike radio and television there was little government oversight.

The internet spread with the expectation that it would improve society by expanding access to information. That vision has been realized across research, medicine, and education. But access to misinformation also expanded, with no rules to protect the public.

This misinformation has greatly harmed our national discourse, fueling polarization by spreading false narratives about election........

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