However AI nerds might keep in mind that precisely a yr in the past, on July 21, 2023, Biden was posing with seven prime tech executives on the White Home. He’d simply negotiated a deal the place they agreed to eight of essentially the most prescriptive guidelines focused on the AI sector at the moment. Quite a bit can change in a yr!
The voluntary commitments have been hailed as much-needed steering for the AI sector, which was constructing highly effective know-how with few guardrails. Since then, eight extra firms have signed the commitments, and the White Home has issued an government order that expands upon them—for instance, with a requirement that builders share security take a look at outcomes for brand spanking new AI fashions with the US authorities if the exams present that the know-how might pose a threat to nationwide safety.
US politics is extraordinarily polarized, and the nation is unlikely to cross AI regulation anytime quickly. So these commitments, together with some present legal guidelines reminiscent of antitrust and client safety guidelines, are the most effective the US has when it comes to defending individuals from AI harms. To mark the one-year anniversary of the voluntary commitments, I made a decision to take a look at what’s occurred since. I requested the unique seven firms that signed the voluntary commitments to share as a lot as they may on what they’ve carried out to adjust to them, cross-checked their responses with a handful of exterior specialists, and tried my finest to offer a way of how a lot progress has been made. You possibly can learn my story right here.
Silicon Valley hates being regulated and argues that it hinders innovation. Proper now, the US is counting on the tech sector’s goodwill to guard its shoppers from hurt, however these firms can determine to alter their insurance policies anytime that fits them and face no actual penalties. And that’s the issue with nonbinding commitments: They’re simple to signal, and as simple to neglect.
That’s to not say they don’t have any worth. They are often helpful in creating norms round AI growth and inserting public stress on firms to do higher. In only one yr, tech firms have carried out some constructive modifications, reminiscent of AI red-teaming, watermarking, and funding in analysis on make AI methods protected. Nevertheless, these kinds of commitments are opt-in solely, and which means firms can at all times simply decide again out once more. Which brings me to the subsequent massive query for this discipline: The place will Biden’s successor take US AI coverage?
The talk round AI regulation is unlikely to go away if Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, says Brandie Nonnecke, the director of the CITRIS Coverage Lab at UC Berkeley.
“Typically the events have totally different issues about the usage of AI. One could be extra involved about workforce results, and one other could be extra involved about bias and discrimination,” says Nonnecke. “It’s clear that it’s a bipartisan subject that there must be some guardrails and oversight of AI growth in america,” she provides.
Trump is not any stranger to AI. Whereas in workplace, he signed an government order calling for extra funding in AI analysis and asking the federal authorities to make use of extra AI, coordinated by a brand new Nationwide AI Initiative Workplace. He additionally issued early steering on accountable AI. If he returns to workplace, he’s reportedly planning to scratch Biden’s government order and put in place his personal AI government order that reduces AI regulation and units up a “Manhattan Challenge” to spice up army AI. In the meantime, Biden retains calling for Congress to cross binding AI laws. It’s no shock, then, that Silicon Valley’s billionaires have backed Trump.
