USF, AI Draw Big Debates by MMTC FCC Former Leadership Panel
Former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, says the current framework for the Universal Service Fund (USF) is “not sustainable. The contribution base is shrinking.” She was referring to the tax that supports the USF that’s included in consumers’ landline telephone bills. Clyburn was one of the speakers yesterday at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s (MMTC) FCC Former Leadership Symposium.
One of the USF programs was the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), developed to help children use the internet during COVID. That ended. The FCC recently asked whether another USF program, E-Rate, which subsidizes connectivity for schools and libraries, should be limited or ended, Inside Towers reported.
Former FCC Commissioner Micheal O’Rielly, a Republican, said the ACP “became too big and way too expensive. Fifty percent of the U.S. population was in the ACP. It imploded.”
“Getting rid of something because it’s less than perfect without having a glide path to something that works is irresponsible,” said Clyburn. “Because something is less than perfect is not an excuse for leaving the most vulnerable behind. It is about closing those gaps that still exist.”
Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican, noted that the concept of universal service is mandated by the ’96 Telecom Act and said, “maybe technology can fix” the USF funding issue.
Discussing AI, Clyburn said “AI is not just an innovation story. It’s a layered risk. The FCC must treat AI failures as potentially network failures.”
Former FCC Chair Reed Hundt, a Democrat, asked whether Congress will ask the FCC to regulate AI. “How is the FCC to be involved in governing AI, if at all?” The next FCC, meaning under the next administration, “could require AI to deliver benefits.” Hundt also said AI is going to be “the biggest risk to the workforce.”
He explained, “nobody knows what it is and everybody hates it. Why? It didn’t help that their CEOs said people would lose jobs.” Hundt predicted it’s not “possible for a technology to be so loathed and be commercially accessible.”
O’Rielly countered that not many agencies are regulating AI and “It’s not going to be the FCC. I embrace what technology will bring. I think AI will be immensely valuable for humankind.”
He noted AI is used in newsrooms now in some form, and users may be unaware of that. “You’re using it every day in data centers.” The number of data centers “is only going to be increased. They will find places that are receptive to it.” He said, “We need legislation for certain aspects of it but not” a nationwide overall law.
Referring to the backlash among residents either living near a data center or who could be, O’Rielly believes “that’s a marketing problem.”
Clyburn agreed a national pre-emption for AI “is a no-go, without guardrails or a framework.”
Former FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat, and Deborah Taylor Tate, a Republican, moderated the symposium. Current FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty was a keynote speaker. More on that in the next issue.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
