Between 2019 and 2022, the number of lobbyists sent by corporations and other groups on AI-related issues stayed relatively equal year-to-year, hovering around 1,500. Then in 2023, things went off the charts, with over 3,400 lobbyists flooding Washington DC - an increase of more than 120 percent.
From our perspective, having the leading voices on an issue being those that stand to make billions of dollars is generally not a good idea for the public.
One of the more brazen displays of the industry's sway over the federal government took place last fall, when dozens of tech leaders, from Elon Musk to Sam Altman, gathered for a historic closed door session with over 60 US senators, lecturing them about the future of AI.
A plurality of the lobbyists today comes from the tech industry - 700 of them, or 20 percent of that total. But a mix of 17 different industries comprised the other 80 percent, illustrating the wide scope of intersecting interests in AI.
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