Congressman Brett Guthrie discusses the Take It Down Act and the future of artificial intelligence

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, and some evil actors are taking advantage of some of the most vulnerable Americans.

Capitol Hill has now stepped in, passing legislation that has since been signed by President Trump, protecting people from some very vulgar acts. The Take It Down Act now targets apps like Snapchat, Instagram and many others and forces them to create an easy pathway to quickly remove images of revenge porn that usually were created by AI.

Congressman Brett Guthrie says it all started with one teenage girl who was victimized by AI.

“Somebody took a picture of her and used an app to change it where she was, her face, not her body, but the body was not clothed and it’s just horrific. For 15 year old even it’s not them, it’s still horrific and people think it’s them, and she found out there was no system to take it down. She tried to call Snapchat and they couldn’t get it taken down. And so they went to Ted Cruz. He called the CEO and he goes, you know what? It shouldn’t take a senator calling the CEO to get your pictures you don’t want off these, websites and these these apps. And so we have a requirement now you have to have a system, every app has to have a system to take down unwanted pictures,” said Congressman Guthrie.

Artificial intelligence, however, is progressing rapidly and is becoming a part of our everyday life. Guthrie says the world’s superpowers are now fighting to dominate artificial intelligence production and development, and it is important for AI’s future to be American

“It’s always advancing and some people say maybe we shouldn’t advance, but if we don’t, China is going to do it. So we absolutely have to. It’s imperative that the United States controls the systems around the world that develop and essentially control, because you develop the systems around the world. We don’t want China to do it. China. We’ve had a hearing of a medical device that that was made in China in someone’s body that they, when they went through the medical device, found they have a URL code, they were sending data back to the University of Beijing” Guthrie warned.

Guthrie says it is imperative to find that fine line creating regulations and restrictions for AI, while ensuring the companies responsible for its development still have enough room to grow.