US House Prohibits Members from Using Most Chatbots, ChatGPT Plus Exempted

House of Representatives Passes Regulations on AI Large Language Models

The United States House of Representatives recently passed regulations prohibiting the utilization of any artificial intelligence (AI) large language models by its members, with the sole exception of OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus service.

In a notification issued by Catherine Szpindor, the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House, the utilization of chatbots has been limited for safety reasons.

The memo further clarified that “no other versions of ChatGPT or other large language model AI software are allowed to be used in the House at this time.”

The document specifies that House members are only allowed to use the software for “research and evaluation” and not to incorporate it into their “regular workflow”.

Other constraints include a prohibition on sharing any confidential information as prompts and a mandate that ChatGPT Plus is used with all privacy settings activated.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus Service Exempted from Prohibition

It is not known precisely which privacy features the document mentions, since OpenAI has not provided any privacy advantages that are exclusive to the Plus service.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus service offers general access to the model during busy periods, faster response times to queries, and priority access to new features; however, there is no indication of additional privacy protection.

In April, the company gave users of both ChatGPT and ChatGPT Plus the ability to delete their chat history and accounts; however, the information deleted in this manner still remains stored on the ChatGPT servers for an additional 30 days.

In an April blog post, OpenAI announced their intention to introduce a ChatGPT business subscription service with extra data control capabilities. There is currently no information regarding how this service may differ from ChatGPT Plus.

Proposed Federal Commission on Artificial Intelligence

Once adopted, the new House rules will only be applicable to House members; however, Representatives Ted Lieu, Ken Buck, and Anna Eshoo recently proposed a bipartisan bill to create a federal commission on artificial intelligence with the purpose of providing regulatory supervision to the entire U.S. AI industry.