For Immediate Release: July 24, 2023
Press Contact: Robyn Shapiro, rshapiro@economicliberties.us
Washington, D.C. — The Rethink Trade program of the American Economic Liberties Project will host an event this week with policymakers and other experts to discuss an emerging AI problem: efforts by tech and AI interests to commandeer trade talks and lock in binding international rules that limit or outright ban government oversight or regulation of AI.
Last week, leading AI companies publicly committed to share algorithmic information and allow pre-deployment external evaluations of their systems – safeguards that AI experts have long demanded. But behind closed doors, DC lobbyists representing Big Tech interests are stealthily working to lock in “digital trade” rules that forbid governments from regulating them and forestalling the threats they pose to our privacy and children’s wellbeing, civil rights and civil liberties, workers, and democracy itself. The administration’s big Asian trade negotiation now underway with a November 2023 deadline — the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework — is the chosen Trojan horse. Rethink Trade will release a report documenting conflicts between industry’s digital trade demands and the administration’s all-of-government competition policy and Big Tech regulatory initiatives.
WHEN: July 27, 2023 at 1:15pm EST
WHERE: Virtual (Register here)
WHO:
- Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)
- Sarah Myers West, Managing Director of AI Now Institute and former FTC advisor
- Kristina Irion, Associate Professor at University of Amsterdam
- Lori Wallach, Director of Rethink Trade
- Daniel Rangel, Research Director of Rethink Trade
You can register to watch the event live at 1:15pm EST on July 27 here.
Learn more about Rethink Trade here.
Learn more about Economic Liberties here.