Three things to know about how the US Congress might regulate AI

Schumer's plan is a culmination of many other, smaller policy actions. On June 14, Senators Josh Hawley (a Republican from Missouri) and Richard Blumenthal (a Democrat from Connecticut) introduced a bill that would exclude generative AI from Section 230 (the law that shields online platforms from liability for the content their users create). Last Thursday, the House science committee hosted a handful of AI companies to ask questions about the technology and the various risks and benefits it poses. House Democrats Ted Lieu and Anna Eshoo, with Republican Ken Buck, proposed a National AI Commission to manage AI policy, and a bipartisan group of senators suggested creating a federal office to encourage, among other things, competition with China. Though this flurry of activity is noteworthy, US lawmakers are not actually starting from scratch on AI policy.