Anyway, humans, you have until 5:00 pm ET on July 7, 2023, to submit your documents, lab reports, and personal narratives to shape an AI policy that’s still just a blueprint, even as millions play with Bard, Sydney, and ChatGPT, and employers make plans for slimmer workforces. Maybe then we’ll get down to embodying those lovely principles into law. Hey, it worked with social media! Uhhhhhh …

Sam Altman's appearance in congress was a lot different than the visits Mark Zuckerberg has endured. The CEO of Facebook, as it used to be called, did not get solicited for advice on how to solve problems. Instead, he got roasted, as I described in my account of a 2019 hearing in the House of Representatives. 

You are Mark Zuckerberg. It is 1:45 pm in Room 2128 of the Rayburn Office Building. You have been testifying for almost four hours, enduring the questions of the House Financial Services Committee, five minutes per representative, some of them very angry at you. You have to pee.

Chair Maxine Waters (D-California) listens to your request for a break and consults with a staffer. There is a floor vote coming up and she wants one more member to ask you questions. So before your break, she instructs, you will take questions from Representative Katie Porter (D-California). Porter begins by asking you about a contention that Facebook’s lawyers made in court earlier this year that Facebook users have no expectation of privacy. You might have heard this—it got press coverage at the time—but you say you can’t comment without the whole context. You’re not a lawyer!

She turns to the plight of the thousands of content moderators Facebook employed as contractors who look at disturbing images all day for low wages. You explain that they get more than minimum wage to police your service, at least $15 an hour and, in high-cost regions, $20 an hour. Porter isn’t impressed. She asks if you would vow to spend one hour a day for the next year doing that work. This is something you clearly don’t want to commit to. You squirm—is it nature’s call or the questioning?—and sputter that isn’t the best use of your time. She triumphantly takes that as a no. Waters grants the recess and you run a photographer gauntlet for some relief.