By: Nick Gambino
As the threat or promise of AI (depending on who you ask) looms ever larger, President Biden is seeking out experts to help advise on how best to move forward. He met with a group of eight experts in San Francisco on Tuesday. Gavin Newsom, the California Governor, was also in attendance.
The group included experts on both sides of the argument. Those present represented people who see the many benefits of AI as well as those who actively warn against the threats an unchecked artificial intelligence poses.
Generative AI like ChatGPT has seen an explosion in popularity and adoption in the past few months. It’s moving so fast that some version or another has been quickly integrated into virtually every search engine and social platform in the blink of an eye.
The intention of the meeting in San Francisco was to get a good grip on the current state of the burgeoning technology and to understand where it’s headed. This was intended to be more than just a catch-up meeting but a meeting of minds to inform the enacting of regulations and legislation to ensure we check the most dangerous parts of AI.
“As I’ve said before, we will see more technological change in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50 years and maybe even beyond that,” Biden stated at the beginning of the meeting. “My administration is committed to safeguarding America’s rights and safety, from protecting privacy to addressing bias and disinformation to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released.”
Prior to this meeting, the Biden administration has been actively addressing the regulation of AI in other forums such as the meeting at the White House in May attended by Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and tech leaders from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other companies.
Ahead of the May meeting the White House issued a series of executive actions that put security checks on AI. As part of the initiative the National Science Foundation has committed to an investment of $140 million to create seven AI research hubs.
