[T]he House advanced a measure Friday that would create a task force to keep track of the development of artificial intelligence in Vermont.
The six-member body would make recommendations on how the state should both regulate artificial intelligence and support and promote emerging technology.
Artificial intelligence can be roughly defined as technology simulating human reasoning or consciousness. Already in wide use, AI has made its way into smartphones and social media sites, and is behind the development of self-driving vehicles.
A goal of the task-force proposed in H.378 would be to learn more about Vermont companies that may be working on artificial intelligence products.
“I feel like we’re playing catch up,” said Rep. Robin Chesnut-Tangerman, P-Middletown Springs. Chesnut-Tangerman is a member of the House Energy and Technology Committee, which considered the bill this session.
“It’s not that we need to be regulating, it’s that we need to know whether we need to be regulating,” he said.
The idea of establishing a commission to consider artificial intelligence policy was first proposed by Rep. Brian Cina, P-Burlington in the 2017 legislative session.
The bill under consideration this session had a narrower scope, a task force to study the issue for a year.
“I think the original idea behind the commission was could we make Vermont a place where people want to come to to develop (artificial intelligence),” Cina said in an interview.
“But I think we need to learn more before we go down that road.”
Cina said he proposed the bill because he believes artificial intelligence poses risks. He said the technology has the potential to be used for surveillance, mass data collection and even violence.
The task force would “bring light” to the artificial intelligence under development in Vermont and would help educate the public as to how it’s being used, Cina said.
The House Energy and Technology Committee heard testimony in February from a Vermont organization already working with advanced artificial intelligence technology.
The Terasem Movement Foundation, a non-profit scientific research organization in Lincoln, has developed an animatronic robot that can simulate a mind using an individual’s memories, attitudes, beliefs and mannerisms.
Bruce Duncan, the managing director of the foundation, said he has traveled all over the world with the robot, which is called Bina48, to participate in scientific conferences and public discussions about artificial intelligence.
In written testimony submitted to the committee, he said creating an artificial intelligence commission in Vermont “should be considered a high priority.”
“As more applications of AI are developed, Vermonters and their elected representatives should be leading the debate on how to build trust, prevent drastic failures, and integrate ethical considerations into the design of AI technologies,” he wrote.
Chesnut-Tangerman said he was stunned to hear about the Terasem Movement Foundation’s work.
“This was very advanced, very earth shattering and right here in Vermont,” he said.
In considering H.378, the House Energy and Technology Committee also heard testimony from the Vermont Agency of Transportation which weighed in on the discussion of artificial intelligence policy—specifically as it relates to self-driving vehicles.
Joe Segale, the transportation agency’s director of policy planning and research, submitted a recommendation that the committee develop legislation in 2019 that would allow for companies to test and deploy automated vehicles—and the state to regulate them—on roads in Vermont.
Segale told the committee conservative forecasts are that by the 2030s 10 percent of the cars on the road will be self-driving vehicles.
More ambitious forecasts are that by 2030, 95 percent of passenger miles will be traveled in shared automated vehicles.
If the artificial intelligence task force bill passes a second vote on the House floor, it will move to the Senate.
If the legislation becomes law, the task force would convene on or before Aug. 1 this year.
