House Energy and Commerce advances open-source AI bill along party lines

Partisan division on how Congress should move forward with setting up regulations for frontier artificial intelligence models was active during a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup on Sept. 16, where the panel approved an open-source AI bill giving responsibilities to the Commerce Department along party lines. “Simply put, Americans are falling behind communist China in the market for open source and open weight AI models. And while our labs here continue to make remarkable progress in developing proprietary models, if the U.S. is forced to rely on superior open-source models from adversaries like China, then the American economy all the way down to individual consumer, financial, healthcare and private data is at risk,” Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) said at the Sept. 16 markup . The committee advanced in a 26-21 vote H.R. 10152 , the Open-Source AI Leadership Act, which Evans introduced on Aug. 27. Since the bill was introduced, the discourse on AI safety and American leadership has shifted significantly with a Sept. 12 essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei arguing a need to slow down frontier AI model development following recent cyber incidents executed by AI agents. During one of those incidents, the victim, Hugging Face, turned to an open-weight model developed by a Chinese entity for its defense. Ex-Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s message in a series of Sept. 8 social media posts on underestimating the power of frontier AI and associated existential risks has also focused mainstream attention on AI and cyber policy. Evans said, “The past few days have dramatically reinforced what everyone on this committee already knows. The genie is out of the bottle, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Artificial intelligence, whether we like it or not, is here to stay. The question is where is ‘here’. Is ‘here’ in the U.S or communist China?” According to a committee memo , H.R. 10152 “directs the Secretary of Commerce to identify barriers to the adoption of U.S. open-source AI models in interstate and foreign commerce and to take steps to address such barriers. It further directs the Secretary to publish reports on the risks associated with the use of foreign adversary open-source AI models in interstate and foreign commerce.” House Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) pushed back on the bill at the markup. Pallone said, “This is not the time to accelerate AI, instead we need to prioritize safety for the sake of humankind. This committee must take action on the issue of frontier model safety, especially in light of recent events...it has become more and more apparent how rapidly this technology is evolving and how essential it is that our ability to monitor the technology keeps pace.” Pallone addressed claims from Evans that H.R. 10152 is important to address Chinese influence on frontier AI models. The U.S. “cannot rely on purely voluntary safety efforts,” Pallone said. “We need guardrails and we need them soon.” He emphasized the need for “AI safety initiatives that are meaningful and enforceable,” asking Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) to work with him ahead of the midterm elections. The markup instead is focusing on “debating a bill that leans into AI adoption,” Pallone said, arguing immediate concern should be about “safety.” Guthrie emphasized that the committee “cannot operate in a vacuum” and doesn’t want to “cripple the economy.” He said the committee is working on comprehensive legislation, with a focus on putting up AI guardrails since the panel started meeting in the current legislative session. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) used the markup as an opportunity to advocate for her FRONTIER AI Act , introduced July 23 with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA). “Congress must debate legislation to put guardrails around frontier AI,” Trahan said. Trahan said, “The argument that if we do anything, even basic transparency and incident reporting standards, [it] would cede America’s leadership on AI to China” isn’t accurate. Trahan emphasized, “The U.S. has led on the most potent technologies by setting strong, durable rules of the road and bringing the rest of the world along with us,” pointing to leadership on “nuclear arms proliferation, chemical and biological weapons, aviation safety [and] medication and treatment development” as examples. Among the other bills considered at the markup, the House panel unanimously approved H.R. 7294 , the AI for Secure Networks Act, from Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and August Pfluger (R-TX). The committee memo says, “The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the impacts of AI technology with respect to the security of telecommunications networks.” H.R. 10163 , the American Quantum Competitiveness Act, from Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) also unanimously passed the committee, with a substitute amendment from Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). The bill would direct the “Secretary of Commerce to support the commercial leadership of quantum technology and its critical components including through supporting manufacturing, use, and scaling of quantum, promoting private investment, and convening stakeholders,” according to the memo. The memo says, “The Secretary shall also take actions to strengthen the quantum supply chain including through identifying critical components, determining barriers to investment, and mitigating risk to the quantum supply chain.” “Finally, the Secretary is responsible for developing a national strategy on quantum technology and critical components with respect to commercialization and a trusted quantum supply chain,” the memo says. -- Sara Friedman (sfriedman@iwpnews.com) Article Type: Daily News Sara Friedman tags: AI Weight: -20