President Joe Biden’s ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence is partly due to the villain in the summer blockbuster Mission Impossible: Reckoning of the Dead, Part One.
That’s according to White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, who told The Associated Press that Biden recently watched the film — which centers on a sentient artificial intelligence that hijacks and sinks a submarine — at Camp David.
“If he wasn’t worried about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw a lot more to worry about,” Reed told the AP.
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Reed added that the president has other concerns about artificial intelligence, stemming from fake images he has seen of himself and his family online.
“He saw fake AI images of himself, his dog. He saw how it could create bad poetry,” Reed told the paper. “He saw and heard the incredible and terrifying technology of voice cloning, which can take three seconds of your voice and turn it into an entire fake conversation.”
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris walk and talk in front of the White House. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
On Monday, Biden signed an executive order on the “safe, secure, and reliable development and use of artificial intelligence.”
The order aims to “ensure America leads the way in delivering on the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence,” according to the White House, and establishes new standards for AI safety and security. The order also requires AI companies to test some of their products and share the results with the government before making them widely available to consumers.
It will be supplemented by Commerce Department guidelines on labeling and watermarking AI-generated content, so that authentic footage and images can be distinguished from those generated by software (which, in theory, could limit the threat posed by deepfakes).
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US Vice President Kamala Harris. Greg Nash/The Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris gave a major AI policy speech at the Global AI Security Summit in the UK on Wednesday to announce the administration’s new policy initiatives. Harris’ attendance at the summit aims to encourage cooperation with other nations and strengthen international norms around AI safeguards.
“President Biden and I reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect the public or advance innovation. We can and must do both,” Harris said in her remarks. “The actions we take today will set the stage for how AI will be used for years to come.” She concluded by urging world leaders to “seize this moment” for responsible innovation, saying: “The benefits of artificial intelligence are enormous. It could give us the power to fight the climate crisis, make medical and scientific discoveries, explore our universe and improve people’s everyday lives worldwide.”
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Artificial intelligence has proven to be a hot topic of late, including in the entertainment industry, where members of the currently striking Screen Actors Guild have warned of the potential threats it poses to them.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education