Jeanne Shaheen says Congress doing very little to address rise of AI
Conversation with the Community
Welcome back to Conversation with the Community with our guest Senator Jeanne Shaheen. She’s going to be answering questions from granted state voters in *** town hall format. I’ll jump in with some follow up questions and we have online questions coming in as well, but let’s start things off with Bruce Lebig. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Bruce. I don’t believe our founders could have envisioned the extent to which our citizenry is being constantly surveilled. It’s impossible to perform the basic activities of life without being monitored, and AI will make it impossible to trace the flow of information about us. What is Congress doing to grant individual citizens *** set of basic privacy rights and to constrain AI from running roughshod over these? That’s *** really good question, Bruce, and unfortunately there’s not *** lot going on right now in Congress, and you probably followed the issue with the Department of Defense for all of those people who want to call it the Department of War, technically it is still the Department of Defense, um, but with um an AI company who. refused who wanted to make sure that there were safeguards to ensure that their Technology could not be used to uh surveil people and *** couple of other things and the department refused to agree to that and so there’s been an ongoing controversy around this issue. I hope that Congress can do *** better job of addressing the technology around AI than we’ve done to address the other technology companies that have been responsible for social media and some of the excesses of social media. But sadly right now there’s very little that is moving forward in Congress to address it. Our next question comes from Jeff Erickson. Hi, good morning, Senator. Um, recently we’ve seen younger voters trend to the opposite side of the aisle because they view the, the party establishment as out of touch with their generation and not backing up what they say. Do you think it is time for *** generational shift in the Democratic Party and let *** younger generation take over? Well, I’m not running for reelection, and one of the reasons that I’m not is because I think I’ve been in office now. This is my 3rd term in the United States Senate. I’ve been in public office for 30 years, and I think it’s time to, to move aside and to, um, see the next generation um address. Issues of concern, so I do think it’s important for people. Everybody has to make their own decision, but I do think it’s important for people to assess when it’s time to move on. Now that doesn’t mean that I, I think that the party is not addressing the issues that people care about, and I do think that uh the Democratic Party, when it, whether you’re talking about um security and safety of the American people or um. Support for families, for health care, for um good job opportunities. I think the Democratic Party has answers that make *** lot more sense for most people than many of our opponents on the in the Republican Party. *** quick follow up for you there, Senator, you know you’ve won *** lot of elections in your day. Is there one policy you think the Democrats need to change on in order to broaden the appeal to *** wider base of voters again? I, I think The policies change depending upon what the needs are in the country. I mean, for example, we just had *** vote on the war powers resolution because of the war in Iran this week. Well, that’s probably not something that. We would have done. No. Two years ago because we didn’t have an active um hot war going on anywhere so I do think that it depends on what the issues are that are facing the country um and that that changes depending upon where people live and um what. New Hampshire um addresses issues much differently than Massachusetts for example when it comes to *** lot of issues so I think um the the parties respond both to the voters to the challenges that we’re facing and to the states where people live. Next question from Thalia Flores. Hi. Welcome, Senator Shaheen. Um, as *** ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, you have *** unique perspective of our standing and relationships with allies and adversaries around the world. 2028, presidential hopefuls are already making stops in New Hampshire. What qualifications should we be looking for in *** candidate with regard to foreign policy, and what can they expect to be up against? The thing that makes the United States or that historically has made us different than our adversaries has been our allies and partners, um, sadly. It’s one of the the differences I have with Donald Trump because he has done so much during his tenure to alienate our allies and partners and that’s not good for America’s security for our future and I I think what is as important as expertise on the part of people running for president is their worldview and how they see um. The globe as *** whole, what they think the role of the United States is going to be when it comes to um what’s happening around the world, um how they view things like foreign assistance and soft power, how they view going to war one of my concerns about um the action in Iran is not that we’ve taken out the Ayatollah. I think nobody mourns for him. He was *** promoter of terrorism across the region. He repressed his own people, murdered thousands of Iranians, but there are real concerns about what the end game is here and about what the impact is on not just our men and women serving in the military, because. Depending on how long this goes on, there will be more and more people affected. We’ve already lost 6 service members very sadly, and I know the country mourns with their families, but there’s *** threat of escalation and. Um, *** widening war which we’re already seeing is the real concern and so we wanna know from our future leaders what their view is and under what circumstances would they take the country to war and what kinds of planning. And preparation and protection of American citizens are part of that. Thank you, and Senator, you did just come back from Ukraine. How do you see that conflict evolving in parallel or perhaps you know being diminished in some way? How does that work now that there is more focus on Iran? Well, I am very frustrated with President Trump because of his failure to understand that we are not going to get Russia to the negotiating table in any real way until we put more pressure on them. That means providing more support and more weapons for Ukraine, who have been courageous and resilient in this fight. It means putting more sanctions pressure on, tightening the hold on the Russian economy. The news this morning which you and I just talked about that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran so that they’re able to take out our command and control in our military installations. We don’t know the answer to this yet, but it’s very possible that they’re the reason that our facility in Bahrain got bombed and we lost 6 service members. So the fact that Russia is doing all of this to undermine the United States. And that we are that Donald Trump and his administration are still doing nothing really to put pressure on Vladimir Putin and the Russians is, I think, *** travesty, and it’s not in our best interest. Look, Ukraine, this is the largest land war in Europe, in Ukraine since World War II, and. What happens there is going to affect democracies everywhere. The Ukrainians are fighting because they want to preserve the sovereignty of their country and they want to preserve their ability to join Europe and become *** democracy, and that’s what they’re fighting about. And I was in, as Adam said several weeks ago, I was in Odessa, which is on the Black Sea. And I was just so struck by um the not just the willing the ability of the Ukrainians to fight through this cold winter um all of the attacks that they’re experiencing but their commitment to keep looking at the future and move forward um we had *** hearing yesterday in um the Armed Services Committee about our drone program because warfare is changing so dramatically and um. They were talking about what we’re doing to build drones in the United States. Well, when we were in Odessa, we were in *** room about half of the size, and we saw drones that were everything from about 1 ft square to the size of *** snow blower. And we ask, so are any of those drones made in the United States? They said no. They’re not made in the United States because ours are too expensive and the technology is not advanced enough and so we’re having this hearing yesterday in the Armed Services Committee and they’re talking about this great drone program that we’ve stood up in the Department of Defense and what they tell us is that um they’re gonna put *** *** new um. Set up *** new uh notice of um. Advising people to be part of the program every 6 months. Well, when we were in Ukraine, what we heard is they’re iterating these drones every 2 weeks, so we are behind and, and we are not taking advantage of the technological innovation that’s happening there, and we should be because we are ultimately going to benefit from that. We have *** question coming in from the online world now and you can get some water there while I ask it. Senator Ed Wolf asks, every politician says we need immigration reform until we get it approved and passed, do you believe in opening the borders like it was under the Biden administration? No, I don’t think anybody wants to go back to open borders. I think most people think we need secure borders. We need. Fundamental immigration reform that’s comprehensive. Um, when I was in the Senate back the last time we actually voted on *** comprehensive package was in 2012 and that passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. It provided additional funding for secure borders. It provided *** pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are here, um. Illegally. It um addressed *** number of the issues around um asylum seekers and refugees in ways that long term would have been good for the United States. It produced more revenue which was interesting because if we take immigrants who are here illegally who are working hard, um. Most of them are working hard doing jobs and put them into the economy, then they’re gonna pay their taxes and their employers are gonna have to pay the taxes so um we need to go back excuse me, we need to go back to that kind of comprehensive reform but I think everybody agrees, at least almost everybody I’ve talked to agree that we need secure borders. Next question comes from Sarah Bauer. Hello. Hi, I’m *** student at Altervine High School, and my AP government class wanted to ask, with many elected officials not often recognizing past faults, have you ever regretted *** vote you did or didn’t cast? Why or why not? Um, I regret voting for, um. Secretary Gnome. If I had known then what I knew now, um, I would not have voted for her, and I’m glad she’s gone. She should be gone, gone from the government, not have moved to some other position. OK, Senator, another question from the online world coming in. Deborah Gerard asks, do you think that all the elected representatives should get paid if any part of the government is shut down and unfunded? You know, my view is that what we should do, one of the reasons we’re in the position that allows us to, um, do government shutdowns is because we have all these carve outs for people. I, I think if we’re going to shut down government, we should shut down everything that nobody gets paid, not air traffic controllers, not um. Members of our military, not people who are serving in office, and if we did that, then we wouldn’t have government shutdowns anymore. All right, next question comes from Marie Mulroy, and I’ll get you some more water, Senator. Yeah, good. Hi, how are you? Thank you for everything you’ve done for our state. We were so grateful. Um, more and more policies getting done by presidential executive orders. And I think, do you think this is dangerous? And if you do, what is Congress doing to kind of take back those guardrails and put policy where it’s supposed to be by the Constitution? I do think, excuse me. I know it’s early, but my allergies are starting, so yeah, exactly. I think the challenge right now is that we have *** government that has essentially all three branches including the courts that are controlled by Republicans and so it’s really difficult when we have um when we don’t control enough votes to address what the president is doing to put those guardrails back um I’m very concerned like I know most Americans are about what’s gonna happen. With the elections and what it appears the President Trump is doing to to try and address the election space I I applaud our Secretary of State Dave Scanlon because he was unwilling to send the voter lists to Washington and that’s why we’re in *** lawsuit against the administration so. My view is the best way for us to be able to rebuild those guardrails is to elect Democrats and take back the House in November and hopefully make gains in the Senate. OK, perfect. Thank you so much. Next question comes from Kevin Donahue. Senator Shaheen, good morning. Um, is there *** particular piece of legislation that you would like to see enacted into law prior to your announced retirement? Mm well, I would like to see us address health care issues. I was *** big proponent of the enhanced premium tax credits that help people afford their health insurance, and I think it’s um. *** travesty that we have *** president who doesn’t care about the cost of *** war in Iran but is not willing to support um helping people keep their health insurance. I would like to see us do that. I would like to see us address the cost of insulin and some of you may know I have *** granddaughter who has type one diabetes and. Um, so I’ve seen very directly the impact of that awful disease on her family, on our family, um, and. If we can make insulin affordable for everybody, I think that would be *** great step forward. Thank you very much. Next question comes from Laura Landerman Garner. Laura, hi, Senator. It’s so nice to see you again. Nice to see you and thank you for all that you do for our service members. Thank you. You all know that Laura does cards every, um, holiday season to all of our service members, and you were the first person I called to get some help with that. So thank you. We enjoy doing it every year. Thank you so much. I know you sit on the, um, Senate Small Business and entrepreneurial, it’s *** tough word, um, committee, and, um, we’re thinking about so many small businesses here in the Granite State and across the country closing. What would you tell our young adults like some of those people here in the audience to do with their dreams to open up *** small business? Well, excuse me, New Hampshire is *** small business state, as you know, about over 90% of our businesses are considered small businesses. They employ over half of our workforce. You know, my favorite statistic about small businesses that 16, they create 16 times more patents than large businesses, so they are very. Innovative about 2/3 of our workforce in the country, it comes from small business, um, and so much of the innovation comes, and I have, um, two daughters who have started businesses, and, um, one is, is no longer she sold her business, but the other has now over 100 employees and has 18 stores nationwide. So I have seen very directly the challenges that small business owners face but also the benefits and the fact that you can do anything and um one of my concerns about the current administration is the tariffs because the tariffs that President Trump has put on. Um, so many sectors of our economy is really having an impact on small businesses. Um, it’s having an impact on families, but, you know, he said that the tariffs were designed to try and, um, rebuild our manufacturing industry, and yet last year we lost over 100,000 jobs in the manufacturing industry, um, most attributed to those tariffs, so. Don’t let that dissuade you, but be aware of the challenges as you’re starting your small business. Thank you. Got another question, Senator, coming in from the online world. Carl Ricker asks, do you support term limits? I don’t support term limits because I think the voters have the ability to term limit um. Our elected officials and if we take that away from voters then it takes away the option now hopefully. If people people will do their own term limiting and decide um when it’s time to leave and if not the voters will make that decision we saw in Texas where we have um *** controversy around *** member of congress over um an inappropriate relationship with *** staff member. That he’s getting primaried or he got primaried and the voters are probably going to take him out, so I think. Voters, as you all know. Voters are very smart and if they think somebody’s not doing the job. They’re going to vote no. Senator, I want to sneak in one last question. Obviously, uh, you governed New Hampshire back in the day. Uh, what do you think about this idea of taking state auto inspections away? Are you in favor or opposed? I don’t think that makes sense. I, I look. One of the fundamental responsibility of our elected officials is the safety and security of the people we represent. And Much as some people may not like auto inspections, they’re important to ensure the safety of people on the road, and when we get rid of that inspection, then we put at greater risk people who are traveling, and I don’t think that makes any sense. All right, Senator, thank you so much for joining us on Conversation with the Community. Thank you for taking time to come, thank you to our crowd here as well. Uh, you can always watch all of the episodes of Conversation with the Community on WMUR.com, our free mobile app, very local, and YouTube. We want to say *** special thanks to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics who helps us put these together. And again, thank you all for watching and thanks to the senate to the senator for participating. Have *** good morning.
Jeanne Shaheen says Congress doing very little to address rise of AI
Conversation with the Community
Speaking with her constituents for “Conversation with the Community,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was asked a question about the use of artificial intelligence, and if Congress is doing enough to protect privacy rights.”Unfortunately, there’s not a lot going on right now in Congress,” Shaheen said.Shaheen brought up the recent controversy surrounding Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology. Late last month, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s systems and imposed other major penalties.Administration officials chastised Anthropic for failing to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology by a deadline, accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards.”You’ve probably followed the issue with the Department of Defense — for all of those people who want to call it the Department of War, technically, it is still the Department of Defense — but with, an AI company who refused, who wanted to make sure that there were safeguards to ensure that their technology could not be used to surveil people and a couple of other things. And the department refused to agree to that. And so there’s been an ongoing controversy around this issue,” Shaheen said.”I hope that Congress can do a better job of addressing the technology around AI than we’ve done to address the other technology companies that have been responsible for social media and some of the excesses of social media,” Shaheen continued. “But sadly, right now, there is very little that is moving forward in Congress to address it.”See Shaheen’s full response to the question in the video player above. She also speaks about immigration, term limits and the future of the Democratic Party in this segment.Watch the full conversation here or the links below:Watch Part 1: Shaheen questions what comes next in war with IranWatch Part 2: Shaheen says Congress doing very little to address rise of AIConversation with the Community is a town hall-style program. It is intended to allow the politician to convey their points of view on a wide range of topics. During the program, the moderator may challenge the politician’s assertions, but every fact may not be checked in real time. WMUR News 9 is committed to holding politicians and other public figures accountable on their claims throughout this cycle.
Speaking with her constituents for “Conversation with the Community,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was asked a question about the use of artificial intelligence, and if Congress is doing enough to protect privacy rights.
“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot going on right now in Congress,” Shaheen said.
Shaheen brought up the recent controversy surrounding Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology. Late last month, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s systems and imposed other major penalties.
Administration officials chastised Anthropic for failing to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology by a deadline, accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards.
“You’ve probably followed the issue with the Department of Defense — for all of those people who want to call it the Department of War, technically, it is still the Department of Defense — but with, an AI company who refused, who wanted to make sure that there were safeguards to ensure that their technology could not be used to surveil people and a couple of other things. And the department refused to agree to that. And so there’s been an ongoing controversy around this issue,” Shaheen said.
“I hope that Congress can do a better job of addressing the technology around AI than we’ve done to address the other technology companies that have been responsible for social media and some of the excesses of social media,” Shaheen continued. “But sadly, right now, there is very little that is moving forward in Congress to address it.”
See Shaheen’s full response to the question in the video player above. She also speaks about immigration, term limits and the future of the Democratic Party in this segment.
Watch the full conversation here or the links below:
Conversation with the Community is a town hall-style program. It is intended to allow the politician to convey their points of view on a wide range of topics. During the program, the moderator may challenge the politician’s assertions, but every fact may not be checked in real time. WMUR News 9 is committed to holding politicians and other public figures accountable on their claims throughout this cycle.