Biden White House issues executive order on AI

If you want to regulate AI, you can't be any geek off the street. Being the president helps.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden issued an executive order laying out rules and regulations for the growing AI tech sector. Addressing privacy, security, jobs, and consumer issues, the order details federal expectations of the industry and requirements going forward.

In an interview with the Associated Press, deputy White House chief of staff Bruce Reed said that Biden’s concern over the danger posed by the technology had been building for months. Voice cloning and AI-generated images of himself particularly bothered the president, Reed said.

Watching the new Mission Impossible movie, whose main villain is a sentient AI, only added to Biden’s concern.

“If he hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about,” Reed said.

Details, details. The order, which the White House declared was “the most sweeping actions ever taken to protect Americans from the potential risks of AI systems,” directs developers to share safety test results with the government, enact standards related to biological materials, and ensure AI models aren’t trained on private information, among other requirements. The order also calls for the labeling of AI-generated material to protect against fraud.

Despite the order’s ambitions, the tech industry is unlikely to be forced into making the changes asked of it, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation VP Daniel Castro told Politico.

“There’s a huge gap between goals and reality throughout the EO,” Castro said, adding, “Policymakers often forget that the reason industry hasn’t already adopted certain solutions is because the solution doesn’t yet exist.”