President Biden is trumpeting new promises from Big Tech companies to make artificial intelligence tools safe amid growing fears that the emerging tech may wreak havoc.
The White House’s promotion of the voluntary commitments comes as the Biden administration wishes to be seen taking action on AI danger while federal officials consider potential regulations and Congress debates proposed laws governing the emerging tech.
Mr. Biden brought seven tech companies making AI products to the White House on Friday, namely Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and its beneficiary OpenAI.
The Biden administration showcased new pledges from the companies to develop AI in a safe, secure, and transparent fashion.
“These commitments are a promising step but we have a lot more work to do together, realizing the promise of AI while managing the risk is going to require some new laws, regulations and oversight,” President Biden said. “In the weeks ahead, I’m going to continue to take executive action to help America lead the way toward responsible innovation.”
The Biden administration will showcase new pledges from the companies to develop AI in a safe, secure, and transparent fashion, according to the White House.
The commitments include provisions saying the companies will test their products before they become public, will make tools to help audiences understand what content is fueled by AI, and commit to investing in cybersecurity and insider threat safeguards.
“The companies commit to internal and external security testing of their AI systems before their release,” a White House fact sheet about the commitments said. “This testing, which will be carried out in part by independent experts, guards against one of the most significant sources of AI risks, such as biosecurity and cybersecurity, as well as its broader societal effects.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for AI rules in testimony to a Senate Judiciary Committee panel in May and cited concerns about people using the tools to make bioweapons or manipulate people.
Mr. Altman’s company is also assembling a team in hopes of staving off an AI-enabled apocalypse. Earlier this month, OpenAI said it was building a team of engineers and researchers to solve the problem of a potentially superintelligent AI from going rogue and ending humanity.
Concerns that AI nightmares will become a reality are not limited to OpenAI. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk launched a new startup this month that he dubbed xAI, and he has cautioned federal lawmakers to consider a potential “Terminator future” in order to prevent it from arriving.
The AI makers’ new commitments also include provisions intending to help prevent the tools from falling into the hands of villains.
“The companies commit to investing in cybersecurity and insider threat safeguards to protect proprietary and unreleased model weights,” the White House fact sheet said.
The research-security provision comes after Google expressed concern that its work was becoming vulnerable to China during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers in May.
Fears about China’s prying eyes prompted Google DeepMind, the tech titan’s AI research team, to rethink its strategy for publishing and sharing its work, a source close to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party told The Washington Times in May.
Concerns that foreign adversaries will use AI tools to influence American politics are also spreading.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that he is concerned about foreign nations using generative AI to meddle in the coming 2024 election cycle. Lt. Gen. Haugh is Mr. Biden’s pick to run the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command who has experience working on election defense efforts during the 2018, 2020, and 2022 elections.
The AI makers’ new commitments hope to contain the damage of potential manipulation.
“The companies commit to developing robust technical mechanisms to ensure that users know when content is AI generated, such as a watermarking system,” the White House fact sheet said.
The success of the commitments is contingent upon the companies’ willingness to follow through on their promises and does not directly address other AI developers, including those in hostile nations such as Russia and China, from making dangerous products.
While Congress examines the rapid development and adoption of AI tools to understand whether new laws are needed, Mr. Biden’s White House is readying other executive actions.
“We’re going to take executive action, and developing executive action now, where you’ll see more of a government role,” a White House official told reporters on Thursday.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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