US Senate's Schumer to host Musk, Zuckerberg, other tech leaders at AI forum

WASHINGTON: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will host tech leaders including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai at an artificial intelligence forum on Sept. 13, Schumer's office said on Monday.

The closed-door forum will also feature OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, according to Schumer's office, which added the forum will be bipartisan.

Several governments are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months after the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

In June, Schumer hinted that he would host a forum to "lay down a new foundation for AI policy."

"We need the best of the best sitting at the table: the top AI developers, executives, scientists, advocates, community leaders, workers, national security experts - all together in one room, doing years of work in a matter of months," Schumer has said, according to the Senate Democrats' website.

Regulators globally have been scrambling to draw up rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and generate images whose artificial origins are virtually undetectable. Its impact has been compared to that of the arrival of the internet.

The risks of artificial intelligence to national security and the economy need to be addressed, U.S. President Joe Biden said in June, adding he would seek expert advice.

Biden has also recently discussed the issue of AI with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose government will later this year hold a first global summit on artificial intelligence safety.