The White House has unveiled a major new initiative to address the rapidly-growing concerns surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, appointing Kamala Harris as its “AI Czar” and allocating $140 million of budget for the project. Harris will be meeting with leaders from Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google to discuss potential risks associated with AI and how those risks can be minimized.
President Biden has highlighted the importance of ensuring responsible innovation when it comes to AI, prioritizing the public good while safeguarding society, security, and economy. As part of this initiative, seven research institutes will be launched across the United States. These institutes will invite companies like Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI to conduct a public evaluation of these AI systems.
“President Biden has been clear that when it comes to AI, we must place people and communities at the center by supporting responsible innovation that serves the public good, while protecting our society, security, and economy,” the White House said.
“Importantly, this means that companies have a fundamental responsibility to make sure their products are safe before they are deployed or made public,” the Biden administration added.
The development of advanced AI technology such as DeepFakes has sparked a major debate in recent years – particularly around Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s warnings surrounding AI surpassing human intelligence and potentially posing an existential threat to mankind. Over 1,000 experts recently signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on AI development in order to evaluate the risks involved. A former researcher at OpenAI even went so far as to say that if AI reaches “human level” thinking then humanity could be facing a 50/50 chance of doom.
It is clear that taking effective action against these threats requires addressing both ethical considerations and technological challenges simultaneously; something that Harris’ new role looks set to achieve in order to ensure responsible innovation when it comes to Artificial Intelligence.
But since she’s the one in charge to make sure we don’t eliminate the human race with AI…I think we’re doomed.
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