Executives leading the race on artificial intelligence that has pierced the tech industry, including the CEOs of OpenAI, Google and Microsoft, met Thursday at the White House for what a senior US official described as a “frank discussion” about their responsibilities to make sure their systems are secure
The meeting, attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and other top officials, comes as Joe Biden’s administration scrambles to develop a more concerted response to recent rapid advances in technology. It also comes days after AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton sounded one of the more notable warnings about the long-term dangers of developing machines that become smarter than humans.
“Many of [the big tech companies] they’ve talked about their responsibilities, and part of what we want to do is make sure we have a conversation about how they’re going to deliver on those commitments,” the senior administration official said. This person did not outline any additional regulations or actions the Biden administration could considering.
Executives invited to the meeting were told they would focus on the risks posed by the “current and near-term” development of the technology. But emphasizing the “core responsibility of making sure their systems are reliable and secure before they’re released or deployed,” it will also help address “what are likely to be far more powerful technologies in the future,” the official said.
After the meeting, Harris said in a statement, “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 the protection of its products. And every company must comply with existing laws to protect the American people.”
Biden also withdrew from the meeting, according to one account of the event.
Ahead of the meeting, the White House said seven of the largest AI companies agreed to open their models to some degree of public scrutiny during the annual Def Con hacker convention in August. However, it said the level of openness would be “consistent with responsible disclosure principles,” leaving it unclear how much the companies would disclose. OpenAI declined to release basic technical information about its latest large language model, GPT-4.
The White House also said the Office of Management and Budget will release draft guidelines for public comment this summer governing the federal government’s use of AI.
Tech leaders attending Thursday’s meeting were OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, and Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and Alphabet, along with Dario Amodei, chief executive of start-up Anthropic . Administration officials at the meeting included Jake Sullivan, the director of the National Security Council; Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council; Gina Raimondo, secretary of commerce, and Jeff Zients, White House chief of staff.
The Biden administration has announced a number of AI initiatives in recent months, including the release of a draft AI bill of rights and starting a review in April of what new technical standards are needed to ensure AI systems work as intended, rather than exposing people to unforeseen risks.
Lina Khan, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, sounded Thursday one of the administration’s loudest alarms. Writing in The New York Times, he said his agency will look into whether existing laws can be used to address things like online scams and privacy violations caused by artificial intelligence.
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