July 21 (UPI) — The White House on Friday announced commitments from the leaders of seven U.S. tech giants to take a responsible approach to developing artificial intelligence for ethical purposes.
President Joe Biden met Friday with executives from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI, whose voluntary commitments were part of a growing federal effort to ensure “safe, secure, and transparent development of AI technology,” the White House said in a statement.
At a press event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Friday, Biden said AI has “an enormous promise of both risk to our society and our economy and our national security, but also incredible opportunities — incredible opportunities.”
Citing a first-of-its-kind AI Bill of Rights introduced in October, Biden also reminded listeners that he signed an executive order in February to direct agencies to protect the public from algorithms that discriminate. And in May, he said, his administration unveiled a new strategy to establish seven new AI research institutes to “help drive breakthroughs” in the industry.
“And today, I’m pleased to announce that these seven companies have agreed … to voluntary commitments for responsible innovation,” Biden said. “These commitments, which the companies will implement immediately, underscore three fundamental principles: safety, security, and trust.”
Biden was also readying an executive order that would further limit the risks of the emerging technology, while also preparing to deliver legislation to Congress that seeks to protect the nation from AI’s harmful potential.
“Companies that are developing these emerging technologies have a responsibility to ensure their products are safe,” the White House said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration is encouraging this industry to uphold the highest standards to ensure that innovation doesn’t come at the expense of Americans’ rights and safety.”
The companies have vowed to implement a litany of safeguards to boost security and trust in software that will ultimately be used in the nation’s major industries.
As part of the plan being announced Friday, the companies have agreed to rigorously test AI systems before they ever hit the market, with independent experts troubleshooting the software to identify any detrimental risks such as cybersecurity.
The companies also agreed to share information across the industry, and to confab with local agencies and governments on managing AI risks.
The companies will invest more in internet security to guard against insider threats and protect proprietary information, while also allowing third-party reporting of vulnerabilities in AI systems, the White House said.
The tech giants will also attempt to gain the public’s trust by developing ways for users to immediately recognize when content is AI-generated, perhaps by watermarking images.
“This action enables creativity with AI to flourish but reduces the dangers of fraud and deception,” the White House said.
The companies said they will publicly report the capabilities and limitations of their AI systems, as well as guidelines for its ethical use.
The companies plan to conduct research on societal risks posed by AI. The administration, meanwhile, said it will continue working with the companies over time to keep controls on pace with AI’s future development.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with the big tech giants at the White House in May as the administration ramped up efforts to ensure AI develops “responsibly.”
The meeting was part of a broader effort by the administration to engage with policymakers around the world on the most pressing issues posed by AI.
In June, Biden met with big tech executives and AI developers in Silicon Valley to discuss risk management and other AI-related issues.
At the time, the companies agreed to participate in public evaluations of AI systems, which will allow programmers to explore ways to improve it.
The National Science Foundation was also planning to use $140 million of its own funds to launch seven new National AI Research Institutes across the country.
The Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division issued a joint statement vowing to protect the public from AI-related risks.
The administration has also issued a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights while Biden signed other executive actions to promote responsible innovation in the field, the White House said.
In February, Biden ordered all federal agencies to uproot bias in their technological action plans and to protect the public from algorithmic discrimination, which is also one of the primary capabilities of AI technology.
