Hawley calls on Congress to protect Americans from AI

WASHINGTON — Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, co-chaired a hearing, calling on Congress to protect Americans’ creative work from being harvested by powerful A.I. companies without fair pay.

“What are we going to do practically to make sure that normal people—whether they are journalists, whether they’re bloggers, whether it’s just the working mom at home—what they can do to protect their work product, their information, their data. How are we going to make sure […] they are able to vindicate their rights? Because they do have rights, and they should have rights.”

Senator Hawley also raised concerns over growing deepfake technology that can manipulate users’ data, arguing that Americans should be able to protect their image and likeness online.

“I just think the idea that at any moment you live in the fear that some image of me out there could be manipulated and turned into something completely else, ruin my reputation—and what’s your alternative? Go file a legal suit? […] Most people don’t have money for that.”

Senators Hawley and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act in June to put power in the hands of consumers and give Americans impacted by nascent AI technology their day in court to hold Big Tech companies accountable.

Senator Hawley’s effort to unanimously pass his bipartisan bill was blocked by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this past December.