Senate Commerce Schedules AI Hearing

The Senate Commerce Committee will take a look at artificial intelligence and other high-tech industries in a hearing Jan. 15.

The Republican-controlled committee wants input on how the U.S. can maintain its edge in AI, something the Trump administration said was a key element in any regulatory approach to the technology.

“[D]eveloping the next generation of wireless networks and infrastructure” will also be another, and related, topic of conversation at the hearing, titled “Industries of the Future.”

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The witness list will include a pair of FCC commissioners — Republican Michael O'Rielly and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel. Also to testify is U.S. chief technology officer Michael Kratsios, who was among the White House officials emphasizing this week that the U.S. must maintain its lead in AI, so the values of freedom and openness, and not those of authoritarian countries like China, undergird the technology.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.