Musk meets with Schumer as Senate looks into artificial intelligence

Elon Musk slipped into Washington Wednesday for talks with lawmakers about artificial intelligence. The Tesla Inc. CEO later tweeted about the meetings, suggesting that regulating AI might be appropriate. 

“That which affects safety of the public has, over time, become regulated to ensure that companies do not cut corners,” he wrote. “AI has great power to do good and evil. Better the former.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has been considering legislation to regulate artificial intelligence. 

“We had a very good meeting. We talked about Buffalo, Tesla has a large plant in Buffalo,” Schumer told reporters after the meeting. “And we talked about AI.”

But Representative Thomas Massie, a libertarian-leaning Republican, dismissed the idea of regulating the technology: “If AI is outlawed, only those outside of the law will have AI.”

Artificial intelligence has been a focus of research for years, from Silicon Valley to the Pentagon and globally. The November debut of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, however, sent competitors rushing to release their own versions — and critics warn that the products risk regurgitating inaccurate and harmful results, and could lead to the development of AI systems that could not be easily controlled.

Musk also met Wednesday with South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on a visit to Washington, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

On Jan. 27, Musk stopped at the offices of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and spoke to other top congressional Republicans. He also met with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.