Executives at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue appear poised to take action to regulate artificial intelligence in the coming weeks as officials warn of the technology’s dangers.
President Biden focused on the issue Tuesday when he called a meeting in San Francisco that gathered voices calling for a much more forceful response to the potential impact of AI in areas from the workplace to raising children in the years to come push for civil rights.
“We have to manage the risks,” Biden said in brief comments on Tuesday. Today’s event, a White House official said, will be “followed by a process in the coming days to quickly develop decisive actions that we can take in the coming weeks.”
President Joe Biden, seated next to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, addresses a meeting on addressing the risks of artificial intelligence June 20 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
On Capitol Hill, there could be additional industry excitement later this week when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) reveals new details of his own AI-related plans.
A White House stance on AI that began with “educate us.”
Back in May, the Biden administration brought the CEOs of Alphabet (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and others to the White House for what it called a conversation about AI, while emphasizing its “expectation that companies like yours will have to make it happen .” Your products are safe before they are released to the public.”
President Biden came to the meeting and warned of the “enormous danger” the technology could pose in a short video released by the White House. But he was concerned overall – going so far as to say he wanted the assembled CEOs to “educate” us about the technology.
So far, White House action on this issue has been largely limited to things like investment in AI research and an AI Charter of Fundamental Rights. But this week’s meeting came with a promise that even stronger action would be taken.
“Social media has already shown us the damage powerful technology without the right safeguards can do,” Biden said Tuesday. He compared the AI issue to another part of the tech sector — social media, for example — which has fueled significant tensions between political and business leaders for years.
The story goes on
After his remarks, the President then turned to the number of the harshest critics of large technology groups to get ideas for further action.
Tristan Harris, a longtime social media critic, was one of the key figures at the table with the president. Harris, a former design ethicist at Google, is now exploring how tech companies, he said, “have a dangerous hold on our ability to make sense of the world.” He was also featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma and serves as the co-founder and executive director of the Center for Humane Technology.
Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, was also scheduled to attend the meeting. He was notable for urging Washington to take a tougher stance on AI. (Steyer previously led a wide-ranging campaign urging advertisers to boycott Facebook owner Meta.)
Others who took part in the discussion: Fei-Fei Li of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute will discuss the possible benefits of AI in fields like medicine, while Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, will likely discuss how AI could change education. Li, previously chief scientist for AI and machine learning at Google Cloud, has also been vocal about the need to improve diversity in AI. Additionally, Stanford’s Rob Reich, who calls for an established code of conduct among AI developers, is expected to attend the meeting, as will UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna, an expert on gene editing and its ethical parallels with AI.
Joy Buolamwin of the Algorithmic Justice League, an expert on algorithmic bias and its real-world implications, and Oren Etzioni, founding CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, were also scheduled to meet with President Biden.
During this trip, Biden also encountered other key AI players, most notably Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, who has been vocal about AI and its possibilities. The CEO and his wife held a fundraiser for the president’s re-election campaign on Monday afternoon.
“Shannon and Kev, thank you so much,” Biden said Monday night at the event at the couple’s home in Los Gatos, California, before beginning his short speech. The fundraiser was co-hosted by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016.
Supporters wave to President Joe Biden’s motorcade as they drive past en route to a fundraiser in Los Gatos, California. (Nhat V. Meyer/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
A bunch of ideas from across Washington
Of course, it remains to be seen what specific actions the White House will take — and whether those will impact the fast-growing sector. But there is movement and apparently also urgency.
Last year, the Biden administration convened a national artificial intelligence advisory committee, headed by the Commerce Department, to make recommendations on the issue. A May report from the group presented 24 action ideas from Washington. Examples include the adoption of national standards for AI risk management, the retraining of laid-off workers, and diplomatic efforts against possible malicious AI from countries like China.
Trade Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a recent interview that her goal is to reflect on “possibly the most complicated technology policy discussion we’ve ever had,” adding that many of the threats posed by AI may not even be understood today become.
Elsewhere in Washington, a parallel trial is underway on Capitol Hill, led by Senator Schumer. The Senate Majority Leader will deliver a speech on Wednesday to unveil a plan that he hopes will frame a comprehensive and bipartisan approach to solving the problem.
Schumer also recently announced three senator-only briefings in the coming months to educate lawmakers on the issues surrounding artificial intelligence. After the initial briefing, Schumer described the mood on Capitol Hill as “a mixture of urgency and humility; Urgency because AI is evolving so damn fast, and humility because AI is incredibly complex.”
Schumer himself has signaled that his primary focus will be the technology’s impact on national security, and he is presenting his plan at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Ben Vershkul is the Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance.
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