President Biden underscores that AI lacks capability to initiate nuclear strikes while exploring the technology's potential for advancement.
The latest security directive released during Biden's final months in office aims to strike a compromise between harnessing AI's formidable strengths and addressing some of its worrying capabilities.
This memorandum prohibits the use of AI to bypass existing regulations concerning nuclear weapon deployment and limits its application to suppress free speech. More broadly, it disallows government agencies from employing AI in ways that don't resonate with democratic values.
Although these guidelines might appear self-evident, Biden and his team believe that articulating them explicitly can encourage organizations to fully exploit AI's potential, which they worry might be swiftly capitalized on by international foes.
As per a senior administration official, the absence of clear policy and legal guidelines could lead to less experimentation and implementation with AI.
Over the course of several sessions with his national security council, Biden worked on refining the document to ensure that its restrictions would be upheld, even during times of crisis, officials revealed.
Addressing an audience at the National War College, Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan underscored the importance of managing AI's ascension.
"We need to get this right because there's probably no other technology that will be more significant to our national security and the future," Sullivan stated.
In the memorandum, the president also instructed agencies to assist American companies in safeguarding AI technology from foreign spies and to keep progressing in the production of semiconductor chips, essential for numerous AI products.
The decree sets out timeframes for agency reviews that extend past Biden's tenure. The extent to which previous President Donald Trump would handle this matter if he were re-elected is uncertain. Vice President Kamala Harris has been an active participant in the current administration's AI initiatives, including participating in a summit on the theme in London.
Biden administration officials believe that the rapid advancement of AI tools will trigger fresh competitions among global powers. Although predominantly developed in the United States, countries like China are swiftly integrating this technology in both military and civilian sectors.
The US has engaged in dialogues with China about AI, but hopes to intensify discussions on the most risky applications of this technology.
"We recognize that China is constructing its own technological ecosystem with digital infrastructure that won't safeguard sensitive data, that can enable mass surveillance and censorship, that can disseminate misinformation and that can expose nations to coercion," Sullivan said.
"Therefore, we need to compete to offer a more alluring path, preferably before nations travel too far down an untrusted route from which it can be costly and challenging to retrace their steps," he added.
The latest policies also extend to the realm of politics, as the directive urges responsible use of AI in political spheres to uphold democratic values. The absence of clear policies in AI politics could potentially hinder progress and lead to imbalances in the global arena, with countries like China rapidly integrating AI technology.
