White House secures commitments from leading AI companies to mitigate risk

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In light of the risks posed alongside the great promise of artificial intelligence (AI) the White House convened with seven leading companies to secure commitments toward safe, responsible, and transparent development.

On July 21 President Biden met with leadership from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI in order to guide the future development of AI. “Companies that are developing these emerging technologies have a responsibility to ensure their products are safe,” the White House said in a statement. “To make the most of AI’s potential, the Biden-Harris Administration is encouraging this industry to uphold the highest standards to ensure that innovation doesn’t come at the expense of Americans’ rights and safety.”

A number of voices have been raised in opposition to AI in recent weeks citing privacy violations, violations of copyright and intellectual property, and threats to jobs otherwise occupied by human workers. An article from PBS recently described concerns from politicians over AI being used to generate and distribute misleading content ahead of 2024 elections.

The Biden-Harris administration signaled that they’re currently developing an executive order and in pursuit of bipartisan legislation that will help prepare the country for more responsible AI development. In the meantime, the companies in attendance at the meeting committed to the following guidance points:

Ensuring Products are Safe Before Introducing Them to the Public

• The companies commit to internal and external security testing of their AI systems before their release.
• The companies commit to sharing information across the industry and with governments, civil society, and academia on managing AI risks.

Building Systems that Put Security First

• The companies commit to investing in cybersecurity and insider threat safeguards to protect proprietary and unreleased model weights.
• The companies commit to facilitating third-party discovery and reporting of vulnerabilities in their AI systems.

Earning the Public’s Trust

• The companies commit to developing robust technical mechanisms to ensure that users know when content is AI generated, such as a watermarking system.
• The companies commit to publicly reporting their AI systems’ capabilities, limitations, and areas of appropriate and inappropriate use.
• The companies commit to prioritizing research on the societal risks that AI systems can pose, including on avoiding harmful bias and discrimination, and protecting privacy.
• The companies commit to develop and deploy advanced AI systems to help address society’s greatest challenges.

The White House concluded its statement noting that these are part of broader efforts where they will be working with partner nations and allies to establish a strong international framework to govern the development and use of AI.

The full release can be found at www.whitehouse.gov.