Planning Ahead to Avoid an AI Pandora’s Box
Vice President Kamala Harris wasted no time as the newly appointed White House Artificial Intelligence (AI) Czar. She has already met with heads of companies involved in AI and explained that although Artificial intelligence technology has the potential to benefit humanity, the opportunities it allows also come with extreme risk. She is now tasked with spearheading the effort to preemptively prevent a Pandora’s box situation where, once allowed, the bad that results may overshadow the good.
The plan that the administration is devising, overseen by the Vice President, calls for putting in place protections as the technology grows.
On May 4, Harris met with corporate heads of companies leading in AI technology. They included OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. In a tweet from the President’s desk, he is shown thanking the corporate heads in advance for their cooperation. “What you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger,” Biden told the CEOs
Amid recent warnings from AI experts that say tyrannical dictators could exploit the developing technology to push disinformation, the White House has allocated $140 million in funding for seven newly created AI research groups. President Biden has said the technology was “one of the most powerful” of our time, then added, “But in order to seize the opportunities it presents, we must first mitigate its risks.”
The full plan unveiled this week is to launch 25 research institutes across the US that will seek assurance from companies, including ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, that they will ‘participate in a public evaluation.’
The reason for the concern and the actions taken is that many of the world’s best minds have been warning about the dangers of AI, specifically that it could be used against humanity. Serial tech entrepreneur Elon Musk fears AI technology will soon surpass human intelligence and have independent thinking. Put another way; the machines would no longer need to abide by human commands. At the worst currently imagined, they may develop the ability to steal nuclear codes, create pandemics and spark world wars.
After Harris met with tech executives Thursday to discuss reducing potential risks, she said in a statement, “As I shared today with CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products.”
The sudden elevation of artificial intelligence as needing to be managed came as awareness grew as to just how remarkable and powerful the technology has the potential to become. This broad awareness came as OpenAI released a version of ChatGPT which already had the ability to mimic humanlike thinking and interaction.
Other considerations, and probably many not yet conceived, is that AI can generate humanlike writing and fake images; there are ethical and societal concerns. As an example, the fabricated image at the top of this article was created within three minutes by a new user of an AI program.
Managing Editor, Channelchek
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