As artificial intelligence technologies continue to evolve, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra said today that longstanding laws must be enforced to mitigate the dangers and harms of AI tech.
During Axios’ AI+ Summit on Tuesday, Chopra voiced concern that the development of AI technologies today is controlled by just a few companies – something he said is a key focus area for regulators.
“I think you always want to be concerned when there’s any type of market structure that quickly goes to just a couple players,” Chopra said. “And I think ultimately, we won’t be able to unleash the progress of innovation from that.”
“It’s another indicia about governance of these technologies, and who are the deciders about what the future should be? And I think in many cases, the public has longstanding laws on the books that actually need to be enforced,” he stressed. “And none of those laws have a fancy technology exception to them – and I think that’s a key focus for the regulators right now.”
At this moment in time, Chopra said that regulators need to take a hard look at who is in control of AI and “who gets the gains from it.” Currently, there are a handful of U.S. companies that have leadership positions in AI technologies, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
He explained that this new “winner-take-all” dimension makes the issue of AI regulation “much more pressing” because there could be just a handful or firms – or even individuals – who have enormous control over global tech decisions.
While some regulators have suggested creating a new, central AI agency in the Federal government, Chopra warned that existing agencies and laws must also continue to play a key role.
“Because the challenge with regulating data is it’s regulating everything. So, you can’t create a situation where there’s not accountability to do it,” Chopra said. “I would go to say, ‘What are you trying to achieve in a new agency?’”
Whether the answer is technical expertise or enhanced national security, Chopra said that once the goal of the agency is established, “it can all come into line.”
“I have always leaned to: we’ve got laws on the books, use them. If those laws are changed, use those,” Chopra said. “But there is this piece of this, which is, are we ever going to be able to put some of the genies back in the bottles?”
“That’s something we think about a lot – the way in which you can copy a grandchild’s voice, go to their grandparent with diminished capacity, and take their life savings,” he added. “I think this is like a different type of warfare, a different type of human interaction, and I really want to make sure that whatever we do today can stop a lot of that harm.”
