By The White House announced it would invest $140 million to create seven artificial intelligence research hubs and released new guidance on AI.
The developments come ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ meeting with executives from Google’s parent company, Alphabet; Anthropic; Microsoft, and OpenAI on Thursday.
It’s part of the Biden administration’s aim to curtail security risks associated with AI as the technology rapidly develops and to impress on pioneering companies that they can help reduce harm early on. OpenAI is the creator of the widely used AI tool ChatGPT — bolstered by an investment from Microsoft. Anthropic is another leading startup.
In a statement after the meeting, Harris stressed the importance of this partnership moving forward.
“As I shared today with CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, the private sector has an ethical, moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products,” Harris said. “And every company must comply with existing laws to protect the American people.”
As AI becomes more ubiquitous, the White House on Thursday promised it would release guidelines for use by government agencies. AI developers are also expected to agree to have their products reviewed at the upcoming DEF CON cybersecurity conference in August.
Funding for the proposed research hubs will come from the National Science Foundation and will bring the total number of AI research institutes to 25 across the country.
Artificial intelligence has already begun to disrupt everyday life with a deluge of fake images and videos and robot-penned text, prompting concerns ranging from national security to misinformation. The influence is being felt in American politics, as well: Republicans last week released an AI-generated video in response to President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
Biden himself has said “it remains to be seen” if AI is dangerous, adding last month “it could be.”
“Tech companies have a responsibility, in my view, to make sure their products are safe before making them public,” the president said in April ahead of a meeting with his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting at the daily press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that the president has been “extensively briefed” on ChatGPT and said he sees both opportunity and risk in AI.
She said it was a “frank” discussion that included topics such as “the need for companies to be more transparent with policymakers, the public and others about their AI systems, in particular the importance of being able to evaluate, verify and validate the safety, security and the efficacy system; and the need to ensure AI systems are secure from malicious actors and attacks,” Jean-Pierre said.
“You have four CEOs here meeting with the president and the vice president, that shows how seriously we take it,” she said.
The White House has made addressing AI a priority. Last year the administration released a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” and later outlined the creation of a National AI Research Resource.
In February Biden signed an executive order aimed to prevent bias and discrimination in the technologies from their inception.
