--- title: "Tech Bros Lectured Congress About AI “Like Schoolchildren” Who Weren’t Allowed to Raise Hands" description: "Senators gathered the nation's tech industry titans to hear out on what the government should do about AI — silently, it turns out." date: "2023-09-17" modified: "2023-09-17" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/ai-bros-lectured-congress-like-schoolchildren" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai regulation" - "generative ai" - "senate" --- # Tech Bros Lectured Congress About AI “Like Schoolchildren” Who Weren’t Allowed to Raise Hands ![Senators gathered the nation's tech industry titans to hear out on what the government should do about AI — silently, it turns out.]() *\Image: Elizabeth Frantz for The Washington Post via Getty\* On Wednesday, US senators played host to nearly two dozen tech industry titans in a closed-door session in Washington, DC, discussing the future of AI. But despite the power vested in all those members of Congress, the senators were the ones who had to dutifully defer to their guests. *Wired* [reports]() that the over 60 senators "sat like school children," forbidden from speaking or raising their hands. And to be fair, the intent of the forum was to be educational — but you'd be right to question the authority of a teacher who doesn't let their pupils ask questions. Given the guests in attendance, their compliance may as well have been peremptory. Notables included Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. You don't need to do the exact math to know that their combined net worths rival that of a small, disproportionately wealthy nation. Not all were on board with being on the receiving end of a schooling. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) complained that the private nature of the meeting and the lack of input from senators was counterproductive to actual lawmaking, and stifled the chance for cooperation. "There's no feeling in the room," Warren told *Wired*. "Closed-door \[sessions\] for tech giants to come in and talk to senators and answer no tough questions is a terrible precedent for trying to develop any kind of legislation." Still, the forum is undeniably a historic occasion. It's not every day you get all these guys in the same room to mouth off to Congress. And, further still, it's even rarer for them to all agree on something, or at least ostensibly: that the federal government must step in to regulate AI. "It's important for us to have a referee," Musk, who recently [launched his own AI firm](), told reporters after the briefing, as quoted by *Wired*. "\[It\] may go down in history as very important to the future of civilization." When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who organized the meeting, asked if the government needs to regulate AI, the response was unanimous. "Every single person raised their hand, even though they had diverse views," Schumer said, per *Wired*. Having a consensus is a strong starting point, but ironing out what that regulation should look like or how it will be enforced will undoubtedly be divisive. It's worth considering whether these corporate leaders should be the ones having the ears of the country's senators rather than, say, a panel of scientists and AI experts. Is this a show of good faith on Silicon Valley's part, paternalistic concern, dressed-up lobbying, or some plain-and-simple swindling? Frustratingly, the closed-door nature of the meeting precludes us from getting any more insight. So for now, we'll have to take their word for it. **More on AI:** *[The IRS Says It's Using AI to Bust Zillionaire Tax Cheats]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()