(Bloomberg) --More than 20 tech and civil society leaders, including the chief executives of five of the 10 biggest US companies, appeared at a closed-door Senate meeting on Wednesday to shape how artificial intelligence is regulated.
The meeting, which was organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, includes a prestigious, and possibly combustible, mix of personalities with diverging views on how to write the rules for AI. The CEOs of Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and OpenAI were invited to appear alongside rivals and industry critics to discuss possible guardrails for AI that balance the risks and rewards of the technology.
Apart from disagreements over policy, there is also personal friction among some of the attendees. Elon Musk (the world's richest man) previously proposed a cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg (the world's 10th richest man) and took to his own social media platform to criticize Bill Gates (the world's 4th richest man) for allegedly shorting Tesla Inc. stock.
The forum started just after 10 a.m. ET with the CEOs and other participants sitting at a table running the width of the room and Schumer in the middle. Musk sat at one end of the table, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the other. On his way into the summit, Altman, who has emerged as a central figure in discussions about regulating the AI sector, said: "This is sort of an important and urgent and in some ways unprecedented moment."
The high-profile summit comes as part of Schumer's broader efforts to get the Senate up to speed on the rapidly evolving technology. While AI could revolutionize industries from health care to logistics, it also poses a number of risks, including spreading misinformation, amplifying bias and displacing jobs. Some industry critics have previously raised concerns about the potential for tech executives to have too much influence over legislation.
Schumer opened the meeting Wednesday noting the unusual format. He argued that such a "unique" approach is warranted, given the importance and potential power of this new technology.
"Today, we begin an enormous and complex and vital undertaking: building a foundation for bipartisan AI policy that Congress can pass," Schumer said to open the meeting. "This is going to be one of the hardest tasks we undertake, because AI is so complex, will impact nearly every area of life, and is evolving all the time."
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Most of the executives in the room have, in one way or another, urged policymakers to focus on setting rules for the way AI is used rather than for the actual development of the technology. This approach is likely to emerge as a theme among the executives, despite their disagreement on the particulars.
That regulatory model, however, probably won't be sufficient for leaders from organized labor and civil society who will also be in the room Wednesday, warning about the risks that AI poses for workers, mental health and democracy. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, and Meredith Stiehm, president of the Writers Guild of America West, are among those expected to be in attendance.
Some senators have already questioned the practice of giving tech executives a platform to explain how they would like to be regulated, especially behind closed doors. Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren on Monday said the best way to "hear from the tech billionaires is a hearing" in public where people can push back on their arguments.
South Dakota Republican Mike Rounds, who worked with Schumer to organize the set of briefings to educate senators on AI, said the goal of this format is to allow for "lots of different opinions in a very short period of time." He said the aim is to "be as frank as possible, not necessarily grandstanding in front of a camera."
"They'll give us their opinions, we'll take that with a grain of salt, but most certainly we'll all come out with more information than we had going in" Rounds told Bloomberg News Tuesday.
The forum is set to run to as late as 5 p.m. ET with an hour break for lunch at 1 p.m. Each participant will have three minutes for an opening statement, followed by an exchange of ideas, possibly moderated by Schumer, according to several people briefed on the format. Companies have the option to substitute someone in for the CEO after the morning session, the people said.
--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Kailey Leinz.
