Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with the CEOs of leading technology companies to discuss the future of artificial intelligence and its possible risks.
As the Biden administration prepares to roll out a set of initiatives to ensure the rapidly evolving technology improves lives without jeopardizing people’s rights and safety, Harris will discuss the risks they see in current AI development with the leaders of Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
The administration is also preparing to invest up to $140 million to establish seven new AI research institutes, according to The Associated Press.
The announcement comes as stories about the dangers of artificial intelligence mount. Earlier this week, the New York Times profiled Geoffrey Hinton, renowned researcher and “the godfather of AI,” who expressed fears about how quickly the technology is advancing and how little regulations exist to keep track of developments.
“I think if you take the existential risk seriously, as I now do–I used to think it was way off, but I now think it’s serious and fairly close–it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further,” said Hinton, who left Google to speak more freely about his fears. “But I think it’s completely naive to think that would happen.”
According to Hinton, tech companies have instead joined the race to create AI technology that will continue to advance past the knowledge available to control it.
President Joe Biden noted that AI can help to address disease and climate change but also could harm
national security and disrupt the economy in destabilizing ways, according to the Associated Prss. Because AI can generate human-like writing and fake images, the ethical and societal ramifications concern many.The government leaders’ message to AI companies is they have a role to play in reducing the risks and that they can work with the government to do so.