White House Pushes Tech C.E.O.s to Limit Risks of A.I.
Intro
In the administration’s most visible effort to confront rising questions and calls to regulate the rapidly advancing technology, the White House has urged Silicon Valley chief executives to limit the risks of artificial intelligence. The meeting signifies how the A.I. boom has entangled the highest levels of the American government and put pressure on world leaders to get a handle on the technology. However, even as governments call for tech companies to take steps to make their products safe, A.I. companies and their representatives have pointed back at governments, saying elected officials need to take steps to set rules for the fast-growing space.
What Happened at the White House Meeting?
For roughly two hours in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials told the leaders of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, the maker of the popular ChatGPT chatbot, and Anthropic, an A.I. start-up, to seriously consider concerns about the technology. The meeting was the first White House gathering of major A.I. chief executives since the release of tools like ChatGPT, which have captivated the public and supercharged a race to dominate the technology.
Attendees at Thursday’s meeting included Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai; Microsoft’s chief Satya Nadella; OpenAI’s Sam Altman; and Anthropic’s chief executive Dario Amodei. President Biden also briefly stopped by the meeting. “What you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger,” Mr. Biden told the executives.
Why is the White House Pushing Tech C.E.O.s to Limit Risks of A.I.?
The private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products, said Vice President Kamala Harris in a statement. The A.I. boom has raised fears about how the technology might transform economies, shake up geopolitics, and bolster criminal activity. Critics have worried that powerful A.I. systems are too opaque, with the potential to discriminate, displace people from jobs, spread disinformation and perhaps even break the law on their own.
Even some of the makers of A.I. have warned against the technology’s consequences. Recently, Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneering researcher who is known as a “godfather” of A.I., resigned from Google so he could speak openly about the risks posed by the technology. Mr. Biden recently said that it “remains to be seen” whether A.I. is dangerous, and some of his top appointees have pledged to intervene if the technology is used in a harmful way.
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public last year, many of the world’s biggest tech companies have rushed to incorporate chatbots into their products and accelerated A.I. research. Venture capitalists have poured billions of dollars into A.I. start-ups. The A.I. explosion has also raised fears about how the technology might transform economies, shake up geopolitics and bolster criminal activity.
What Happened After the White House Meeting?
Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI declined to comment after the White House meeting. Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House said it had impressed on the companies that they should address the risks of new A.I. developments. In a statement after the meeting, the administration said there had been “frank and constructive discussion” about the desire for the companies to be more open about their products, the need for A.I. systems to be subjected to outside scrutiny, and the importance that those products be kept away from bad actors.
Given the role these C.E.O.s and their companies play in America’s A.I. innovation ecosystem, administration officials also emphasized the importance of their leadership, called on them to model responsible behavior, and to take action to ensure responsible innovation and appropriate safeguards and protect people’s rights.
Related Facts
– Lawmakers in the European Union are in the midst of negotiating rules for A.I., though it is unclear how their proposals will ultimately cover chatbots like ChatGPT.
– In China, the authorities recently demanded that A.I. systems adhere to strict censorship rules.
– Even as governments call for tech companies to take steps to make their products safe, A.I. companies and their representatives have pointed back at governments, saying elected officials need to take steps to set the rules for the fast-growing space.
Key Takeaway
The A.I. boom has raised fears about how the technology might transform economies, shake up geopolitics, and bolster criminal activity. While governments call for tech companies to take steps to make their products safe, A.I. companies and their representatives have pointed back at governments, saying elected officials need to take steps to set rules for the fast-growing space. The White House has urged Silicon Valley chief executives to limit the risks of artificial intelligence, and some of the makers of A.I. have warned against the technology’s consequences.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is a rapidly advancing technology that has captivated the public and supercharged a race to dominate the technology. The A.I. boom has raised fears about how the technology might transform economies, shake up geopolitics, and bolster criminal activity. Governments call for tech companies to take steps to make their products safe, while A.I. companies and their representatives have pointed back at governments, saying elected officials need to take steps to set rules for the fast-growing space. The White House has urged Silicon Valley chief executives to limit the risks of artificial intelligence, as it is the administration’s most visible effort to confront rising questions and calls to regulate the rapidly advancing technology.
