Biden says tech companies must ensure AI products are safe

President Joe Biden on Tuesday met with his council of advisers on science and technology about the risks and opportunities that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence development pose for individual users and national security.

Biden said that “tech companies have a responsibility to make sure their products are safe before making them public.”

“AI can help deal with some very difficult challenges like disease and climate change, but it also has to address the potential risks to our society, to our economy, to our national security,” Biden told the group.

The White House said the Democratic president would use the AI meeting to “discuss the importance of protecting rights and safety to ensure responsible innovation and appropriate safeguards” and to reiterate his call for Congress to pass legislation to protect children and curtail data collection by technology companies.

Artificial intelligence burst to the forefront in the national and global conversation after the release of the popular ChatGPT AI chatbot, which helped spark a race among tech giants to unveil similar tools, while raising ethical and societal concerns about new tools that can generate convincing prose or imagery that looks like it’s the work of humans.

Italy last week temporarily blocked ChatGPT over data privacy concerns, and European Union lawmakers have been negotiating new regulators to limit high-risk AI products.

The U.S. so far has taken a different approach. The Biden administration last year unveiled a set of far-reaching goals aimed at averting harms caused by the rise of AI systems, including guidelines for how to protect people’s personal data and limit surveillance.

The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights notably did not set out specific enforcement actions, but instead was intended as a White House call to action for the U.S. government to safeguard digital and civil rights in an AI-fueled world.

Biden’s council, known as PCAST, is composed of science, engineering, technology and medical experts and is co-chaired by the Cabinet-ranked director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Arati Prabhakar.

Asked if AI is dangerous, Biden said Tuesday, “It remains to be seen. Could be.”

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