House leaders establish bipartisan AI examination task force

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Tuesday said they had created the task force to foster artificial intelligence development while “considering” security safeguards. The task force is necessary due to AI’s potential to “rapidly transform our economy and society,” Johnson said. Jeffries added that Congress must ensure that AI is developed in a beneficial and “equitable” manner for all Americans.

What is this task force supposed to do, specifically? The 12-member panel is tasked with ensuring that the United States continues to lead the world in AI technology. The task force has the job of “preventing bad actors from exploiting this evolving technology,” Jeffries said.

What sort of developments are taking place in the AI arena? OpenAI, the company that brought ChatGPT to everyday users, last week said it had developed a video-generative AI bot called Sora. In a video explaining the product, OpenAI said the bot could take text prompts such as “A cartoon kangaroo disco dances” and “Photorealistic closeup of two pirate ships battling each other as they sail inside a cup of coffee” and turn them into high-quality 1-minute videos. OpenAI has not announced when Sora will be released.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report in WORLD Magazine about how The New York Times is picking a fight with artificial intelligence.