During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) spoke about the regulation of artificial intelligence.
00:00Well, it yields back, I tell you what, that Hippocratic AI for nursing in particular, you touched on that.
00:07I really would like to see how far along we are with that, because that would really help.
00:13I had a nurses' roundtable recently, and they talk about being overworked.
00:18So anyway, fascinating.
00:20So, in any case, now I'll yield my five minutes to, not the ranking member, but Ms. Trahan, filled in for the ranking member today.
00:31You're recognized for five minutes.
00:32Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses today.
00:36I want to acknowledge the important work our civil society partners have done to call attention to the Republicans' ban on state AI regulation.
00:44To that end, I request unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter of opposition to the AI ban from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
00:54Without objection.
00:56I'm going to keep going.
00:59Mr. Chairman?
01:02Unanimous consent?
01:03Yes.
01:05Thanks.
01:08So the tech industry has been wildly successful in shaping the discourse around regulation on Capitol Hill,
01:13and it's even laid bare today.
01:15The very word regulation seems to strike fear in many of my colleagues and at least one of our witnesses.
01:23But among other arguments, they claim the specter of competition from China warrants a full deregulatory agenda.
01:31That if we approximate to any degree what the EU has done on data, privacy, online safety, antitrust, AI,
01:38we will kill waves of startups and dismantle our tech industry.
01:42But their basic premise that America must choose between digital innovation or digital regulation is fundamentally and deeply flawed.
01:52I think it's a false choice.
01:54Mr. Bugarva, I was thrilled to see General Catalyst represented on today's panel.
01:59General Catalyst has fueled tremendous growth in the greater Boston area and, indeed, across the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
02:05You've been an entrepreneur, an advisor, an investor for many years now.
02:09As you see it, what roles do features like high-skill immigration, basic science research,
02:16and lenient bankruptcy laws play in fostering tech innovation?
02:21Well, first of all, thank you so much for the kind words.
02:23It is true.
02:24General Catalyst has been around 25 years, and we started in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
02:27and still have an office and strong presence there.
02:31Absolutely.
02:32I think there was a reason we started in Cambridge.
02:34It was right down the street from Harvard and MIT.
02:36And so the funding for those sorts of institutions and for startups and for research grants is extremely key.
02:43Another part that's key as well is if you look at the Fortune 500 here in the United States,
02:4846% are founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.
02:51One of the biggest advantages we have over China is that we attract the smartest people in the world to our universities and to build companies here.
02:58So I think a lot of what you mentioned is absolutely true,
03:01and I agree with your sentiment that there has to be regulation as well.
03:04And I'm here today to try to advise on what regulatory frameworks at the federal level could be meaningful to protecting consumers.
03:11I mean, the innovation equation is complex, as you indicated.
03:15It's got a heck of a lot of variables, certainly doesn't depend only on regulation.
03:20And the U.S. government has deliberately pursued an innovation agenda dating back to World War II.
03:26We invest heavily in basic science research.
03:28Our founder-friendly immigration policies import the best and brightest from overseas.
03:33Our lenient bankruptcy laws and cultural tolerance for risk-taking create an environment hospitable to startups.
03:40The EU has not pursued these policies to the same degree,
03:43and research suggests those decisions play a larger role in explaining why Europe doesn't have its own Google, Apple, or Meta.
03:50It is therefore false and disingenuous to blame EU's tech regulation for its low number of major tech firms.
03:58The story is much more complicated.
04:00But just as the EU may have something to learn from United States innovation policy,
04:05we'd be wise to study their approach to protecting consumers online.
04:08Mr. Berghoff, in your testimony, you stress the need for a governance framework that, quote,
04:14promotes safety, protects fundamental rights, and is transparent.
04:17I've long emphasized the benefits of transparency in protecting consumers' privacy and online safety,
04:23as well as providing a foundation for sensible, responsible policymaking.
04:28Can you briefly discuss what meaningful transparency requirements for AI systems would look like?
04:33Absolutely.
04:34It is true that Europe has many fragmented markets.
04:37In fact, I think Europe has 24 official languages.
04:40So there's a lot of complexity to why it's been difficult to make large tech companies there.
04:44But I do think one of the elements has also been regulation.
04:48So it's not an either-or, in my opinion,
04:50but it's a combination of structural challenges Europe has faced,
04:54as well as, in many cases, too much regulation.
04:57We have prominent AI companies in Europe that we've backed,
04:59and, you know, they've faced audits where they were asked to audit three models.
05:03They've sent materials to the auditors, and they waited over a year and never really heard back.
05:08So there is also, within Europe, certainly a guise of trying to do more regulation,
05:12but then there hasn't necessarily been a response to our companies.
05:15So happy to provide the panel with more examples within Europe of where regulation has hurt our companies,
05:20but it is absolutely fair to say that it's a really plethora of factors that has held Europe back,
05:25not solely regulation.
05:26And I think that we can learn a lot from Europe's going first on so many of this.
05:34I mean, I think just like privacy and online safety,
05:36I believe this Congress has the means to pass a national AI framework
05:40that provides robust protections for Americans and regulatory clarity for innovators.
05:47The question is, will we do it?
05:48Will we learn from our international partners as we craft regulations
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