HARRISBURG (TNS) — Artificial Intelligence is trained by “scraping” the creative works of humans and then producing its own works that humans read, view, or hear.
Then the questions begin.
Can AI get its own copyright? Were the human creators of the original works the victims of copyright infringement?
Those questions are at the heart of a renewed legislative initiative by state Rep. Kristine Howard, D-Chester. Their vexing and even troubling nature is akin to that of questions raised in many of the 20-plus other AI-related memos and bills submitted in the Pennsylvania Legislature in the last two-year session.
Of those, only two policy-related measures that were AI-focused were adopted.
One, which was signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro, dealt with AI-generated pornographic images of individuals and AI-generated materials involving child sex abuse. The other, a House resolution, called for a study of AI that has since begun.
Among the concepts that failed to cross the finish line were:
A proposal to create a registry of companies that are developing software that involves AI.
A bill that would have required AI-generated media to contain watermarks.
A bill that sought to put a disclosure on all AI-generated content.
A bill that would have required health insurers to disclose when their evaluation of claims uses AI.
A bill that would have required parental consent for a student to receive virtual mental health services, including ones involving AI.
The resolution from Howard, which was reintroduced last week as the new two-year session was moving into high gear. Copyright issues are the domain of the federal government, and the resolution calls on the U.S. Congress to take action to protect creative workers from being displaced by AI.
“We have got to get moving on this,” state Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Montgomery, said about AI. She is chairperson of the Senate Communications & Technology Committee, which is likely to be gatekeeper on at least some bills this session.
“We want to make sure we are keeping the guardrails on AI in Pennsylvania. We don’t want to be so far behind that we can never catch up,” Pennycuick added.
One reason for the crimped action on AI-related bills that originated in the House last session, Pennycuick said, was that the chamber did not have a committee focused on such issues.
This session, it does. The newly formed House Communications & Technology Committee — the first stop for Ms. Howard’s resolution — will soon be holding AI-related hearings, said committee Chairman Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery.
Ciresi said the technology is so new that “we are trying wrap our head around what it all means.” Cooperation between the Democrat-controlled House, the Republican-controlled Senate, and the administration of Shapiro, a Democrat, is important because “AI is going to be everywhere,” Ciresi said.
Republican Rep. Torren Ecker of Adams County, a member of the new committee, said one general challenge of lawmaking around AI is simply understanding it. Another is figuring out how best to regulate it.
The onset, Ecker said, has come “fast and furious.”
The watermarking bill was submitted last session by Democratic Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, D-Berks. It would have required the creator or distributor of AI-created images, videos and text to put a watermark on 30% of the material, using the statement, “Artificial Intelligence Generated Material.”
The concept, Cepeda-Freytiz said, sprang from a conversation with middle school students. The point, she said, is to allow people scrolling through images or screens on digital devices to quickly know which images and words are human-created, and which are not.
Rep. Chris Pielli, D-Chester, last session sponsored a bill that would require disclosures on AI-generated material, and he reintroduced the measure last month. He wants consumers to be able to act in accordance with the phrase “caveat emptor,” or buyer beware. At present, in the case of AI, they often don’t know what created the product.
He indicated the Legislature, in general, has some catching up to do.
“Every aspect of our life is being affected by this,” Pielli said. “In some ways, the horse has already left the barn.”
