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The Democratic sweep of key Congressional committee chairs should push frontier AI bills further in Congress.
Originally published on Bill’s Babbles.
On an unusually sunny September morning, Republican Brett Guthrie told the media that the FRONTIER Act would no longer advance in the Congressional session. Guthrie sits as the House Energy Committee Chair. His decision had effectively killed off what the Foundation for American Innovation described as Congress’s Best AI Bill Yet. FRONTIER’s demise was not dissimilar to the 3 other bipartisan efforts to pass strong frontier AI bills.
Guthrie will be replaced this January by a Democratic counterpart, as will all other Congressional committee chairs after a strong midterm showing that flipped both the House and Senate. Frank Pallone (D) will be his presumptive replacement as the chair of the House Energy Committee.
Guthrie’s reluctance towards the mandated federal oversight of private AI labs is likely to be replaced by someone more amenable. Pallone was one of the three Senators who threw their weight last month behind demands to frontier labs for compulsory incident reporting to Congress within 48 hours.
Guthrie’s replacement chair is not dissimilar to other Republican Committee chairs. The Democratic takeover is likely to replace a substantial proportion of committee chairs, who are more sympathetic towards strong AI regulation. Looking at the six committees from the past four bills, at least half of the replacement chairs have already come out strongly for AI regulation.
interactive table for where frontier AI bills stalled on Datawrapper
Current Progress With Frontier AI BillsStrong Frontier AI bills have been advocated for by organisations such as the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI) and the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy. (IAPS) These bills are ‘strong’ in the sense that they transfer substantial monitoring, verification, and safety standards responsibility to the federal government. This reduces fro