AI Companies Commit to Safeguards During White House Visit

President Joe Biden met with seven industry leaders in artificial intelligence at the White House on Friday as Washington works to develop safeguards and regulations for the developing technology.

Details: Seven companies— Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI— all agreed to “voluntary commitments” to: ensure transparency regarding AI-generated materials; develop risk management and security plans; study potential bias in AI; and work to develop AI technology to address social woes. The voluntary commitments are not enforceable, so Biden urged Congress to pass “bipartisan legislation that imposes strict limits on personal data collection, ban targeted advertisements to kids, require companies to put health and safety first.”

Key Quotes: “We must be cleareyed and vigilant about the threats emerging from emerging technologies that can pose — don’t have to but can pose — to our democracy and our values,” Biden said in an address following the meeting. Biden announced that he will issue executive orders in the coming weeks to “help America lead the way toward responsible innovation,” but did not specify what the executive orders would entail. 

How the Media Covered It: The meeting and commitment announcement were covered moderately across the spectrum. Right-rated outlets focused more heavily on the feasibility of potential regulatory actions on AI development. Left-rated outlets highlighted public fears and suspicion of AI, with the New York Times (Lean Left bias) noting fears of AI amplifying the spread of disinformation and public worry of a “risk of extinction.”