President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with business leaders and experts on artificial intelligence as his administration pushes companies to develop new security and privacy safeguards.
The meeting in San Francisco on Tuesday during Biden’s visit to California will include experts and researchers discussing the challenges posed by AI on the workforce and children, the harm from possible bias, and the potential benefits it holds for education and medicine, according to a White House official.
Among those participating are Sal Khan, the CEO of Khan Academy Inc.; Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer; Tristan Harris, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology; Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Fei-Fei Li, co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute; Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League; Jennifer Doudna, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley; and Stanford political science professor Rob Reich.
The White House official characterized AI as a top priority for the president as the use of generative AI tools has exploded in recent months. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients is overseeing efforts to develop additional steps the administration can take on AI in the coming weeks, according to the official.
Zients earlier this month said AI companies are working with the administration to unveil privacy and security commitments in the near future, an effort spurred by worries that the ongoing regulatory process may work too slow to address emerging technologies.
One of Biden’s top artificial intelligence advisers, Alexander Macgillivray, who helped write the president’s proposal for an AI Bill of Rights, left the administration this month. Macgillivray tweeted that his last day was June 8.
The Federal Trade Commission says it is also monitoring the use of artificial intelligence tools.
Earlier: AI Firms Plan New Privacy Commitments Soon, White House Says
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the leaders of top AI firms, including CEOs Sam Altman of OpenAI Inc., Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. in May at the White House.
Ahead of the meeting, major AI companies, including Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google, committed to participating in the first independent public evaluation of their systems. But the administration is also seeking a broader regulatory push, with the Commerce Department saying earlier this year that it was considering rules that could require AI models to go through a certification process before release.
Earlier: White House Says It Backs New Rules for AI After Harris Meeting
“We remain committed to fostering responsible AI to benefit society” and “working to mitigate the risk,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to California on Monday.
“This administration, as you know, has been very clear about the risk associated with AI, which is why we have been — we have been very committed to doing that.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday will deliver an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington outlining “his vision for how the Senate can harness AI’s potential and protect our society from its potential harms,” according to a statement from his office.
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