The comments from William Hannas, a former senior official with the CIA, came in response to a question from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. Issa asked whether Congress should "adopt a policy of not granting intellectual property protection," such as copyrights, trademarks and patents, to work produced by AI models.
Hannas' answer hinged on his view that artificial intelligence will reach a point where it becomes sentient.
"Many of the scenarios which were science fiction 20 years ago are being taken seriously. Instead of 30, 40 or 100 years from now, in a couple of years from now we'll be dealing with sentient artificial intelligence," Hannas said. "So we have to accept that that's going to happen and deal with it. Should we grant it rights? If it's sentient, we have to."
"I recognize that that's not going to satisfy a lot of people," he added.
Whether AI-generated works merit IP rights is a question currently playing out in court. Last week, AI researcher Stephen Thaler appealed to the D.C. Circuit to overturn a federal judge's ruling upholding the U.S. Copyright Office's finding that only people can have copyright protection. Thaler had filed a copyright application for a two-dimensional artwork titled "A Recent Entrance to Paradise" that was created by an AI system he calls the Creativity Machine.
The congressional hearing Thursday was the third in a series the panel is hosting on the topic of IP theft, cybersecurity and AI. There was discussion about cybersecurity and the race between the U.S. and China to develop AI technologies, but lawmakers also touched on the danger of deepfakes and the need to regulate the nascent industry.
Besides Hannas, others who testified included cybersecurity experts and a general manager of software company Scale AI.
"What is America's exposure to deepfakes and AI-generated images from China?" asked Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. "How can that hurt us from a security standpoint?"
"I think deepfakes are going to be the defining security issue of the next 10 years," said Benjamin Jensen, senior fellow of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This is the one that scares me the most. Because what happens if you destroy trust in a society?"
Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., asked how Congress should balance responsible regulation while promoting innovation as lawmakers consider proposals that include creating new agencies to license AI businesses and imposing requirements for transparency and compensation for IP holders.
"We can't keep having a technological revolution if we overregulate or curb it before it gets started. So I think the really hard task for you all is: What is that balance? What does it look like? What is that licensing framework?" Jensen said. "If I as an entrepreneur have to spend more money on lawyers to basically submit it and protect myself than I do to hire research scientists, I probably have the wrong balance."
Johnson said he wants the U.S. to be a leader in AI, but not fall behind in regulating it.
"The European Union this summer took steps to regulate artificial intelligence by passing draft legislation that the EU is calling 'the world's first comprehensive AI law.' Even China has issued interim guidelines to regulate the use of generative AI," Johnson said. "Of the leading nations on AI, the United States stands out for its absence of basic rules of the road. American technology companies and industry leaders have called on the U.S. government to regulate AI and curtail the privacy and security risks posed by the technology."
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
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