The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday focused on privacy-related concerns arising from the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the committee announced on Monday.
According to a committee announcement, the hearing will examine how AI has “accelerated the need for comprehensive federal privacy legislation.”
The hearing was scheduled amid growing pressure on Congress to enact AI regulation and comprehensive federal privacy legislation.
The United States lacks a comprehensive federal privacy law, and states and other countries are introducing new standards to regulate large, mostly U.S.-based tech companies.
The American Privacy Rights Act, a bipartisan data privacy bill led by Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), was scheduled to be debated in the House of Representatives last month with an amendment, but was halted shortly before debate began due to opposition from House Republican leadership. The House opposition puts the bill’s chances of passing this session in jeopardy, but a Senate hearing on the issue is likely to provide some clarity.
The bill adds requirements to give people more control over their data, such as allowing them to opt out of targeted advertising and data transfers, and also creates a civil right of action that would allow consumers to seek monetary damages through court and preempt state laws.
Testimony at the Senate hearing is expected to include University of Washington Law School professor and co-director of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab Ryan Calo, AI Now Institute co-executive director Amba Kak, and Mozilla global product policy director Udhav Tiwari.
More witnesses are expected to be presented, the commission said.
Congress is also considering regulating AI, but no laws have been passed yet as the technology advances.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) released a roadmap for regulating AI in May, but the document was light on specific regulatory calls.
