U.S.
Senate negotiators are debating legislation that would require AI companies to demonstrate they are taking reasonable precautions to keep their tools from causing harm, according to a Senate aide and a lobbyist familiar with the talks.
AI-related stocks fell worldwide on Monday after leaders of some of the industry’s largest companies called for slowing the pace of the technology’s development. Alarm about the potential harm from AI grew last week when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said he had resigned, in part because the “people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.
The senators are debating giving the U.S. commerce secretary the power to request evidence that AI developers are taking reasonable steps to prevent harm, known as a “duty of care,” according to the Senate aide and lobbyist. The secretary would also have the power to deploy government auditors to test companies’ products themselves, they said. Reuters could not immediately determine what would qualify as “reasonable.”
