The U.S. government is considering laws to help society adapt to the introduction of artificial intelligence.
Early users of the technology are already seeing improvements in labor productivity. For example, buy now, pay later financial services provider Klarna estimates that its AI-assisted tools will increase its profits by $40 million by the end of 2024.
“It basically does the work of 700 full-time agents,” Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC. “It basically handles two-thirds of all the transactions that we receive via chat.”
Klarna’s artificial intelligence assistant tool is built on OpenAI’s system, which powers ChatGPT and Sora, two products that have attracted public and congressional attention.
In 2023, members of Congress hosted panel discussions, private dinners, and study sessions with prominent tech executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.The White House then sought Commitments from 15 Private Industry Leaders Help legislators understand the best ways to identify risks and leverage new technologies. The list includes some of the biggest players in tech, as well as newcomers like Anthropic and OpenAI.
The Senate Artificial Intelligence Task Force, established in 2019, has passed at least 15 bills into law that focus on research and risk assessment. However, compared with the measures adopted by the European Union in 2024, the regulatory environment in the United States appears relatively loose.
“People in Brussels have put in place a lot of bureaucratic rules that make it harder for companies to innovate,” Erik Brynjolfsson, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, told CNBC. “Startups here are The environment is different than in the United States.”
For years, economists have worried that artificial intelligence could reduce job prospects for white-collar workers, similar to the impact globalization has had on blue-collar workers in the past. A study by the International Monetary Fund shows that at least 60% of jobs in developed economies will face changes brought about by the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence.
In 2023, New York State Assembly members proposed a measure to limit the expected impact of technology-driven layoffs through a robot tax. The idea is to introduce costs for companies using technology to replace in-state workers. As of April 2024, the bill is still in committee and its future is uncertain.
Many economists say that if a robot tax is used at all, it should be set at a relatively low level. In the United States, both employers and employees are required to pay a payroll tax of 7.65% of income. But MIT researchers say the optimal rate for a robot tax is between 1% and 3.7%.
“It’s good for us to have output and productivity. So I’m not sure we want to tax that,” Brynjolfsson said. “Robots are part of what is driving technology and bringing us greater productivity.”
“One day in the future, robots will be able to do most of the things that humans do today,” Brynjolfsson said. “We’re not there yet.”
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