Indian-American Vice-President Kamala Harris met with the heads of Google, Microsoft and two other companies developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) as part of the Biden administration’s initiatives to ensure the technology improves lives without putting people's rights and safety at risk.
During the meeting with the CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, Harris said that the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products. All companies must comply with existing laws to protect the American people.
“AI is one of today’s most powerful technologies, with the potential to improve people’s lives and tackle some of society’s biggest challenges. At the same time, AI has the potential to dramatically increase threats to safety and security, infringe civil rights and privacy, and erode public trust and faith in democracy,” the Indian-origin Vice-President said in a statement after the meeting.
Harris added that government, private companies, and others in society must tackle the challenges posed by the new technology together so that everyone can safely benefit.
“President Biden and I are committed to doing our part, including by advancing potential new regulations and supporting new legislation,” Harris said.
The Democratic administration announced an investment of USD 140 million to establish seven new AI research institutes.
In addition, the White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to issue guidance in the next few months on how federal agencies can use AI tools. There is also an independent commitment by top AI developers to participate in a public evaluation of their systems in August at the Las Vegas hacker convention DEF CON.
The meeting was designed for Harris and administration officials to discuss the risks they see in current AI development with the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and two influential startups they support: Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google-backed Anthropic.
Authorities in the United Kingdom also said they are looking at the risks associated with AI. A European Parliament committee is due to vote next week on the bill, but it could be years before the AI Act takes effect.
The release of ChatGPT late last year has led to increased debate about AI and the government's role with the technology. The ability of new “generative AI” tools to produce human-like writing and fake images has added to ethical and societal concerns about automated systems.
Dr Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘Godfather of AI’ because of his work on deep learning which kicked off the latest AI revolution, had on Monday gone public with his fears that AI progress could lead to the end of civilisation within 20 years.
Along with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, companies that the White House says have agreed to participate include Hugging Face, chipmaker Nvidia and Stability AI, known for its image-generator Stable Diffusion.
Harris was joined by senior members of the Joe Biden administration, including Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary; Jeff Zients, President Joe Biden's chief of staff; Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor; and Arati Prabhakar, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, among others.
