President Joe Biden fears that the US Congress and legislation will not be able to keep up with the rapid technological development around AI, artificial intelligence. Therefore, on Friday, he called representatives from the seven largest AI companies to a meeting in the White House.
According to Biden, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI have now committed to “guiding responsible innovation” and taking self-regulated safeguards against everything from cyberattacks to fraud.
Among other things, the companies have promised to develop “robust technical mechanisms”, such as watermarking systems, to ensure users know when content is generated by AI and not created by a human. They must also conduct independent internal and external security testing of their AI systems before release.
Risk and promise
Biden calls AI both a “tremendous risk” and a “tremendous promise” for society, the economy and national security.
— We will see more technology change in the next ten years or even in the next few years than we have seen in the last 50 years. It has been an astonishing revelation to me, Biden said at a press conference in the White House in the company of company representatives.
As technology improves and the 2024 presidential election approaches, concerns have grown in the United States that content created by artificial intelligence will be increasingly used for fraud and disinformation.
There is already a fabricated commercial where former President Donald Trump’s voice is artificially generated.
White House officials say Biden is already working on a so-called presidential executive order on AI security. It is a directive with limited authority, but it does not require congressional approval.
Calls for vigilance
The White House also claims that the US is working with foreign allies to establish “a strong international framework”. The UK will also host an international AI summit this autumn.
Biden calls on all governments and societies to work more actively with AI than was done when the social media platforms gained ground.
— Social media has shown the damage that powerful technology can do if protective measures are not in place. We must be clear-eyed and vigilant about the threats to our democracy and our values from emerging technologies, Biden said.