On Oct. 30, United States President Joseph Biden addressed the threat of ever-developing artificial intelligence (AI) in his newest executive order on Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. This order is one in a multi-step plan to ensure the protection of each American citizen’s privacy.
The plan involves a few standards that the use of AI must pass to be considered as safe and lawful in America.
The first of these standards says, “developers of the most powerful AI systems must share their safety and test results, as well as any other critical information with the US government.” Any form of AI must be tested before being released and recognized as valid and those results must be shared with the U.S. government to avoid any incidents.
The second standard says that “The National Institute of Tests and Technology will set rigorous standards for extensive red-team testing to ensure safety before public release.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will then establish the AI Safety and Social Security Board, a program that will be used to test AI devices and make sure they are safe, secure and trustworthy. This new program will enforce the aforementioned rigorous standards to ensure that the AI device being released is good to use.
The third point that Biden’s order addresses is the use of AI to engineer biological materials. Biden said this order will “allow the AI safety and security board to reduce the risk of life-science technologies being deliberately misused to carry out biological attacks or accidently result in a high-consequence or catastrophic biological event.” Essentially, this orders that the AI board will ensure that AI technology does not have access to anything biological, lest it becomes defective and starts biological warfare.
The fourth point describes the skill that AI has when it comes to replicating genuine items. Biden said this standard will “protect Americans from AI enabled fraud and deception by establishing standards and best practices for detecting AI generated content and authenticating official content.” Using the Department of Commerce, a guide for content authentication and watermarking will be established. The watermarks are something that AI cannot generate, which will let citizens know that communication received from the government is just that, the government.
The final point describes what the government will do to ensure that no further issues or controversies will occur as it pertains to AI; with Biden saying in this section that he will “order the development of a National Security Memorandum, which will discuss further actions on AI and security.” This institute will be managed by the National Security Hall and the White House chief of staff, who will make sure that any further action required when it comes to AI is taken care of.
Biden has also addressed the idea that this may not be all it takes to defend America against the dangers of artificial intelligence. This includes prioritizing federal support for the development of privacy-preserving techniques, some of which are to be announced.