San Francisco Frontiers - White House summons tech giants over AI dangers

Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials will discuss ways to ensure consumers benefit from AI while being protected from its dangers.

US President Joe Biden has urged Congress to pass laws getting stricter limits on the tech sector, but these efforts have little chance of making headway given political divisions.

The lack of rules has given Silicon Valley freedom to put out new products rapidly -- and stoked fears that AI technologies will wreak havoc on society before the government can catch up.

The White House was meeting with chief executives from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic on Thursday to discuss the promise and risks of artificial intelligence.

"It's good to try to get ahead of this. It's definitely going to be a challenge but it's one I think we can handle," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told reporters before entering the White House.

His company, supercharged by billions of dollars from Microsoft, has been at the forefront of rushing out AI to everyday consumers, with the release of ChatGPT five months ago.

Microsoft quickly integrated ChatGPT's abilities to crank out natural-seeming written responses from short prompts into its Bing search engine and other products.

The Windows-maker on Thursday expanded public access to these generative artificial intelligence programs, despite criticism and the meeting at the White House.

Risks from AI include its potential uses for fraud, with voice clones, deep-fake videos and convincingly written messages.

It also a threat to white collar jobs, especially, for now, lower skilled back-office work.

A range of experts in March urged a pause in the development of powerful AI systems to allow time to make sure they are safe, though a halt was widely seen as unlikely.

The White House used Thursday's meeting to announce new actions to "promote responsible American innovation in artificial intelligence."

This included directing $140 million to expand AI research and setting up an assessment system that would work in cooperation with big tech to "fix issues" in problematic AI models.

"Don't get your hopes up that this will lead to anything particularly meaningful, but it's a good start," said David Harris, a lecturer at Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley.

- Race-to-the-bottom -

An arms race over AI is expected to play out for several years.

Google, Meta and Microsoft have spent years working on AI systems to help with translations, internet searches, security and targeted advertising.

But late last year San Francisco-based OpenAI supercharged interest in generative AI when it launched, forcing their hand to move quickly.

Google has invited users in the United States and Britain to test its AI chatbot, known as Bard, with Meta pointing to new uses in its ad tech.

And Billionaire Elon Musk in March founded an AI company called X.AI, based in the US state of Nevada, according to business documents.

A top US regulator put AI in the crosshairs ahead of a White House meeting, signaling that the US government would not fall behind when it came to setting up rules and guardrails.

"Can we continue to be the home of world-leading technology without accepting race-to-the-bottom business models and monopolistic control?" Federal Trade Commission chief Lina Khan wrote in a guest essay in the New York Times.

"Yes -- if we make the right policy choices."

The European Union's central data regulator has formed a task force to help member countries harmonize their policies and address privacy concerns.

The EU is also expected to have AI legislation agreed by the end of the year, with clear rules governing generative AI.

"We don't see this as a race (to regulate). In fact, we're working closely with our EU counterparts," a senior White House official told reporters.

V.Mitchell--SFF