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Technology

Technology

The Big Story

Lawmakers push tech leaders on AI, energy

Leaders from Silicon Valley were met Thursday with a new tone from Congress, where Republican lawmakers sang their tune of tech innovation over heavy-handed regulations.

© Greg Nash

Over the course of more than three hours, four major technology leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, pitched their ideas to senators on how to stay ahead of China in the artificial intelligence (AI) race.

Altman warned the Senate Commerce, Energy and Science Committee that the U.S. is ahead now, but China might not be that far behind.

“It is our belief that the American models including some models from OpenAI, Google and others are the best models in the world. It’s very hard to say how far ahead we are, but I would say not a huge amount of time,” Altman said during the hearing titled “Winning the AI Race: Strengthening U.S. Capabilities in Computing and Innovation.”

Other witnesses included Microsoft vice chair and President Brad Smith;Lisa Su, the CEO of semiconductor maker AMD; and Michael Intrator, co-founder of AI cloud computing startup CoreWeave.

To keep ahead of China, Altman and the other witnesses called on Congress to prioritize AI infrastructure like data centers, training workers like electricians to help build these products and the need for open and broad access to public data.

While the hearing touched upon a variety of topics from AI’s energy use to discrimination in models, the push for a light-handed approach underscored both witness testimony and questions from mostly GOP lawmakers.

“Adopting a light-touch regulatory style for AI will require Congress to work alongside the president...We need to advance legislation that promotes long-term AI growth and innovation,” Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in his opening remarks.

Cruz called out Europe’s regulation-heavy stance, warning it “killed tech in Europe.”

The tech leaders echoed this idea, while noting they would still support a streamlined federal approach that would make clear the rules and speed up development.

“One federal framework that is light touch that we can understand and lets us move with the speed that this moment calls for seems important and fine,” Altman said, later noting a state-by-state approach would be “burdensome.”

Read more takeaways from the hearing at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we're Miranda Nazzaro and Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

© The Hill