Robotics and AI – US Congress hears bold, but partial, future visions

As part of hearings into frontier technology the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the United States Congress last month heard evidence on the potential impact of AI and robotics, which will increasingly be linked to form embodied intelligences or ‘physical AIs’.

The JEC’s focus is on employment and economic potential, and the hearing came in the wake of July’s US AI Action Plan and the subsequent Executive Orders published by President Trump (not to mention services-sector reports on enterprise AI’s effects).

The Congressional Hearing heard testimony in the form of detailed briefings from a range of interested parties, a chance for technologists and others to set out their stall, and thus reveal the inner workings of US strategy.

Will Rinehart is Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; a public policy think tank generally seen as center-right on the political spectrum. Describing ChatGPT as the “fastest growing ...