Casten voiced anxieties regarding potential automation-driven job displacement and tech company liability exemptions.
"The power of it to write code, to query huge data sets, to do all sorts of things that I did all the time in the private sector.
I just don’t have as much cause to do that in this job, so I think about it more from the perspective of a legislator," said Casten.
The representative warned against rushing technological deployments without proper long-term societal safeguards.
"I have real concerns, just politically," said Casten.
"What happens to a society with large numbers of unemployed young people, and particularly young people in professions that have historically skewed male?
Because unemployed young men is sort of a recipe for a political crisis."
Casten compared corporate lobbying strategies to historic international standoffs.
"Every time they come and present to us in Congress, they say, ‘We have to move really fast, because otherwise the Chinese will, and I can’t be held accountable for whatever this does, because the important thing is that we build it,’" said Casten.
"That’s fundamentally the same argument that led us to the Cold War."
In contrast, Representative Bill Foster adopted an optimistic stance regarding utilizing advanced digital modeling systems.
"I use it for computer coding and drafting legislation," said Foster.
Foster noted that advanced systems assist efficiently with structured technical tasks.
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"One of the great things that I find (with) these advanced AI tools ... is I come up with some," said Foster.
