Warren blasts closed-door Senate AI meeting, calls for rapid regulation

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Warren blasts closed-door Senate AI meeting, calls for immediate regulation

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said AI should be regulated to protect privacy and safety following a closed door hearing with tech leaders.

Following a closed Senate AI forum with tech giants, union leaders and artificial intelligence experts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told reporters Wednesday AI should be regulated to protect privacy.

She also criticized the decision to keep media and the public from viewing the hearing.

"I do not understand why the press has been barred from this meeting," Warren said. "What most of the people have said is we want innovation, but we have got to protect safety."

Warren said every single person in the room believed government has a role to play in the fast-changing AI technology. She added that one measure she introduced with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., should be considered soon.

"Lindsey Graham and I have a tech bill, and it is a tech bill that would provide some serious regulation over some of the tech giants — it covers issues like privacy as well as AI."

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Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wants to regulate AI to protect consumer privacy.  (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In July, Graham and Warren introduced the "Digital Consumer Protection Commission Act." It would create an independent "bipartisan regulator charged with policing the biggest tech platforms, like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, to promote competition, protect Americans’ privacy, and prevent harm online," according to a summary of the bill.

The bipartisan hearing Wednesday comes as several Senate committees scheduled AI hearings this week to discuss "increasing transparency" for consumers. 

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Warren also criticized the decision to only allow moderators to ask question of the tech executives and experts who spoke to the group.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. — one of the moderators for the AI hearing — told Fox News Digital Wednesday the hearing was closed to encourage tech giants to speak "perhaps a little more freely to the members about some of the challenges that the members will find as they look at either promoting or regulating this particular segment [of AI technology]."

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A man is seen using the OpenAI ChatGPT artificial intelligence chat website in this illustration photo on July 18, 2023.  ((Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images))

The event was broken up into two sessions, with Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-Ny., moderating the first and Rounds taking over the second. Notable tech figures attending included Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Sam Altman.

Several congressional members have introduced bills to regulate AI development in recent months.