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The American president signed a decree requiring companies in the industry to submit the results of their safety tests to the federal government.
Published on October 30, 2023 10:55 p.m
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US President Joe Biden at the White House (Washington), October 30, 2023. (CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
Joe Biden wants to tame AI. On Monday, October 30, Washington unveiled rules and principles designed to ensure America is a “leader” in regulating artificial intelligence (AI) as Western lawmakers struggle to regulate this controversial technology. In this sense, the American president signed a decree that specifically obliges companies in the sector to submit the results of their safety tests to the federal government if their projects pose “a serious risk to national security, national economic security or public health.”
The criteria for these security tests are determined and published at the federal level. “To fulfill the promises of AI and avoid the risks, we must govern this technology. There is no other solution (…): it must be monitored,” said the head of state before signing the executive order at the White House. In addition to the new security assessments, the text provides guidelines on equity (to avoid discriminatory biases), initiates research into the impact of AI on the labor market, and recommends the development of tools to easily identify content created with AI.
The White House may brag about the decree’s ambition, but in reality Joe Biden has limited room for maneuver. Any truly binding and ambitious AI legislation should be passed by the US Congress. However, the latter are currently divided between Democrats and Republicans, making the passage of a large-scale law very unlikely.
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