White House secures voluntary pledges from Microsoft, Google on AI

Seven major artificial intelligence companies, incl GoogleAnd Microsoft and OpenAI, at the White House on Friday, vowing to find ways for consumers to identify AI-generated material and test their tools for security before a public release.

Amazonanthropic, reflection and meta Round the pool of potential attendees. Each of the seven companies on Friday agreed to a set of voluntary commitments in the development of artificial intelligence technology.

Obligations include:

• Develop a way for consumers to identify AI-generated content, such as watermarks.
• Engage independent experts to assess the security of their tools before they are released to the public.
• Share information on best practices and attempts to circumvent safeguards with other industry players, governments and outside experts.
• Allow third parties to search for and report security vulnerabilities in their systems.
• Report the limitations of their technology and direct appropriate uses of AI tools.
• Prioritize research on the societal risks of AI, including with regard to discrimination and privacy.
• Developing artificial intelligence to help mitigate societal challenges such as climate change and diseases.

Security has emerged as a major concern in the world of artificial intelligence since OpenAI’s release late last year of ChatGPT, which can respond to simple text inputs with sophisticated, creative, conversational responses. Big tech companies and investors are pouring billions of dollars into the big language models behind so-called generative AI.

The technology carries such potential force that major players in the space have expressed public concerns about moving too quickly. In an open letter in May, experts and industry leaders wrote that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority along with other societal risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

The latest commitments are part of President Biden’s effort to ensure AI develops with appropriate safeguards, while not impeding innovation. Congress is studying rules around AI, though implementing standards could take months or years as lawmakers continue to learn from experts about how the technology works and the related risks involved.

The executives scheduled to attend Friday’s White House meeting are Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Celebski, Anthropics CEO Dario Amodi, Google Global Affairs Kent Walker, Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleiman, Meta Head of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, Microsoft President Brad Smith and OpenAI President Greg Brockman.

The Biden administration said it has already consulted with many other countries about voluntary commitments and is working to make sure they complement international efforts when it comes to putting up firewalls around technology.

Vice President Kamala Harris has previously hosted AI CEOs and labor and civil liberties experts to discuss the challenges that come with AI.

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