Topline
Former President Barack Obama helped craft the White House strategy to address risks associated with artificial intelligence—one of several factors that influenced President Joe Biden to develop the new controls surrounding the fast-moving technology unveiled in an executive order on Monday.
US President Joe Biden speaks during the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity ... [+]
Key Facts
Obama worked closely with the Biden administration to produce the executive order the president signed Monday laying out a plan to address the safety and security of AI, along with privacy, civil rights and consumer concerns, according to NBC.
The former president’s team reportedly communicated approximately a dozen times with top Biden staffers about the issue over the past five months and consulted with tech companies, academics and advocacy groups on the administration’s behalf.
Obama played a key role in developing a portion of the plan that offers voluntary screening of new AI products to tech companies, emphasizing to them the risks associated with national security, misinformation and discrimination, according to NBC.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, featuring an AI villain dubbed “the Entity,” also fueled Biden’s concerns, according to White House Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, who said he watched the Tom Cruise movie, released in July, with Biden at Camp David.
Biden was also motivated to take action by seeing realistic fake images of himself and his dog, quipping “I watched one of me . . . when the hell did I say that?” Biden said while signing the executive order at the White House on Monday.
Crucial Quote
“We don’t want anyone with an internet connection to be able to create a new strain of smallpox, access nuclear codes, or attack our critical infrastructure,” Obama wrote on Medium this week as Biden unveiled the new strategy. “And we have to make sure this technology doesn’t fall into the hands of people who want to use it to turbocharge things like cybercrime and fraud.”
Tangent
Obama raised concerns about AI during his time as president, when his administration authored a report on the evolution of the emerging technology during his second term that laid out plans to begin federal research and public outreach, while raising concerns about its potential impact on jobs and the economy.
Key Background
Biden’s executive order installs guardrails for tech companies and creates new federal standards to test and alleviate risks associated with new products. It also addresses ways that artificial intelligence algorithms could fuel discrimination within the housing and criminal justice systems or be used for nefarious purposes in science, including the development of “dangerous biological materials.” The White House touted the multi-agency strategy as “the most sweeping actions ever taken” in regards to AI, which has been largely self-regulated by tech companies up to this point and created a new sense of urgency in recent years with the rise of ChatGPT.
Further Reading
White House Unveils ‘Sweeping’ AI Strategy As Biden Pushes For Transparency And Safety (Forbes)
