Congress' Growing Focus On AI Policy

Last week, the House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce kicked off its first in a series of hearings surrounding the burgeoning topic of artificial intelligence (AI) with a hearing titled "Safeguarding Data and Innovation: Building the Foundation for the Use of Artificial Intelligence."

While this was the first AI-focused Energy and Commerce hearing this year, Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) noted it was the Committee's seventh hearing focused on data privacy. Consumer data privacy is a major priority for Chair Rodgers. This first hearing demonstrated that she is keenly focused on the intersection between data privacy and the use of AI in the private sector. She emphasized the need for a national data privacy standard as a "first step towards a safe and prosperous AI future." "Data is the lifeblood of artificial intelligence," she said. "As we think about how to protect people's data privacy, we need to be considering first and foremost how