ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate study committee on Wednesday laid out a broad framework to determine how the state should regulate emerging artificial intelligence technology to protect the public without stifling innovation.
“(AI) will literally cure cancer,” Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, chairman of the study committee, said during the panel’s first meeting. “However, it also has a tendency to cause great damage. … It is going to impact and change things like never before.”
Several legislative committees held hearings on AI last year, and during this year’s legislative session a bill was introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives to criminalize the use of AI-generated “deepfakes” to impersonate candidates. in political ads. House Bill 986 passed overwhelmingly in the House but died in the Senate.
On Wednesday, the new Senate study committee agreed on a wide range of policy areas that AI will impact and that must be addressed in any legislation Georgia lawmakers propose, including health care, public safety, education and the transport.
Overlaying all of those categories is how to regulate AI in a way that ensures the technology is used ethically and transparently. A House committee that plans to begin meeting soon will also address that issue, said Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs, who was the lead sponsor of the counterfeit bill.
Georgia could be one of the first states to adopt AI regulations. While the European Union Parliament adopted AI legislation last March, Colorado is the only U.S. state to have done so, Hayley Williams, director of the state Senate’s Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis, told the Senate panel.
So far, Congress has not approved any regulations on AI, he said.
“It is a very complex universe to address and very difficult to regulate,” he said. “The reality is that the impact is too great not to regulate.”
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Williams said the EU Artificial Intelligence Law, which will come into force in 2026, regulates AI systems based on the risk they pose to the public. AI systems that pose an “unacceptable” risk are completely banned, while systems that are considered to pose a “minimal” risk are not regulated at all.
European companies that fail to comply face heavy fines, Williams said. Colorado law does not impose fines for noncompliance, he added.
Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, said the study committee’s goal should be to encourage innovation in AI development in Georgia with less emphasis on imposing restrictions like the EU model.
But Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, said regulating artificial intelligence systems to protect the public should also be an important goal.
“The primary function of government is to protect its citizens,” he said. “We should ensure that we protect citizens from the potential impacts of AI.”
Albers said he plans to schedule seven or eight study committee meetings this summer and fall before the panel makes recommendations to the full Senate. The next meeting is scheduled for July 17.
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