WASHINGTON: American technology leaders including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai met with lawmakers at Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a closed-door forum that focused on regulating artificial intelligence.

Lawmakers are grappling with how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity since the release of OpenAPs ChatGPT chatbot.

`It`s important for us to have a referee,` Musk told reporters, adding that a regulator was needed `to ensure that companies take actions that are safe and in the generalinterest ofthe public.` New Jersey Senator Cory Booker praised the discussion, saying all the participants agreed `the government has a regulatory role` but crafting legislation would be a challenge.

Lawmakers want safeguards against potentially dangerous deepfakes such as bogus videos, election interference and attacks on criticalinfrastructure.

`Today, we begin an enormous and complex and vital undertaking: build-ing a foundation for bipartisan AI policy that Congress can pass,` US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said in opening remarks.

`Congress must play a role, because without Congress we will neither maximize APs benefits, nor minimize its risks.` Other attendees included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and AFL-CIO labor federation President Liz Shuler.

Schumer, who discussed AI with Musk in April, said attendees would talk `about why Congress must act, what questions to ask, and how to build a consensus for safe innovation.` In March, Musk and a group of AI experts and executives called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAPs GPT-4, citing potential risks to society.

This week, Congress is holding three separate hearings on AI. Microsoft President Brad Smith told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday that Congress should `require safety brakes for AI that controls or manages critical infrastructure.`-Reuters