Joe Biden signed an executive order on Monday that he called the most “significant” action that any government has taken on the safe deployment of AI.
Under the order, tech companies will be required to share test results for their artificial intelligence systems with the US government before they are released. New standards for biological synthesis screening – to identify potentially harmful gene sequences and compounds – will be developed to mitigate the threat of AI systems helping to create bioweapons.
Under the provisions on AI-made deepfakes, the US Department of Commerce will issue guidance to label and watermark AI-generated content to help differentiate between authentic interactions and those generated by software. However, some groups focused on surveillance are not as optimistic. Albert Fox Cahn, the Surveillance Tech Oversight Project, said the approach taken in the order would enable further AI abuses. For one, he said, the White House order relies on AI auditing techniques that “can be easily gamed by companies and agencies”.