This lawmaker stands out for his AI expertise. Can he help Congress?

Rep. Jay Obernolte has said it many times: The biggest risk posed by artificial intelligence is not “an army of evil robots with red laser eyes rising to take over the world.”

It’s the “less obvious” and more mundane issues such as data privacy, antitrust issues and AI’s potential to influence human behavior. All these take precedence over the hypothetical notion of AI ending humanity, the California Republican says.

Obernolte would know: He’s one of a handful of lawmakers with a computer science degree — including graduate research on AI in some of its earliest stages. With the rise of generative AI applications like ChatGPT — what some observers have dubbed a “big bang” moment — Obernolte has emerged as a leading expert in Congress on how the technology works and what lawmakers should worry about.

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