Tech companies pledge to ensure AI security and transparency at the White House

Receive Free Artificial Intelligence Updates

U.S. tech companies, including Google and OpenAI, publicly pledged on Friday to promote security and transparency in the development of artificial intelligence at the White House.

Leaders from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection AI, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI have made “voluntary” commitments “to help move towards safe, secure and transparent development of AI technology,” the White House said.

The commitments – which include agreeing to internal and external security testing of AI systems before they are made public – come less than three months after the Biden administration summoned technology leaders to the White House for what was described as a “frank discussion” of AI security issues.

Several executives appeared at the White House alongside President Joe Biden to tout their new public ventures, including Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith, Inflection AI chief executive Mustafa Suleyman, and Nick Clegg, Facebook chairman and Instagram parent company Meta.

“Artificial intelligence[poses]. . . both a risk to our society, our economy and our national security, but also incredible opportunities,” Biden said.

Clegg called the voluntary pledges “an important first step in ensuring responsible AI safeguards are in place.” Smith said the White House had “created[d] a foundation to help ensure that the promise of AI stays ahead of its risks”.

Anna Makanju, vice president of global affairs at OpenAI, said the commitments “contribute specific, concrete practices” to the “ongoing discussion” about AI regulation. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman testified before Congress in May and called on lawmakers to strengthen regulation of AI, warning, “I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go wrong.”

In addition to committing to more security testing, the companies have also committed to sharing more information with industry and government on how they are mitigating risk. They also said they would invest more money in cybersecurity safeguards and promised to make it easier for third parties to discover and report vulnerabilities in their systems, the White House said.

The Biden administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been scrambling to craft a cohesive policy response to the rapid advances in AI technologies that have emerged in recent months.

The White House called the voluntary pledges a “critical step toward developing responsible AI,” but noted that the administration was still preparing an executive order and urging Congress to pass legislation to further regulate AI development.

A White House official said the voluntary pledges are “pushing the boundaries of what companies are doing and raising the standards of safety, security and trust in AI.” However, this did not “change the need” for bipartisan legislation and an executive order from the White House.

“It’s a big priority for the president and the team here,” the official added.

“In the weeks ahead, I will continue to take executive action to help America lead the way in responsible innovation,” Biden said Friday. “We will work with both parties to develop appropriate legislation and regulations.”