21 July 2023 , 15:44
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Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed to meet a set of safeguards brokered by Joe Biden's administration.
The White House said it has secured voluntary commitments from seven American companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they release them.
Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of commercial AI systems, though they do not detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.
A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has elicited public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and spread disinformation, among other dangers.
Tech giants have committed to security testing carried out in part by independent experts (Getty Images/iStockphoto)The four tech giants, along with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and start-ups Anthropic and Inflection, have committed to security testing "carried out in part by independent experts" to guard against major risks, such as to biosecurity and cybersecurity, the White House said in a statement.
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The companies have also committed to methods for reporting vulnerabilities to their systems and to using digital watermarking to help distinguish between real and AI-generated images known as deepfakes.
They will also publicly report flaws and risks in their technology, including effects on fairness and bias, the White House said.
The voluntary commitments are meant to be an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get US congress to pass laws regulating the technology.
Some advocates for AI regulations said Mr Biden's move is a start, but more needs to be done to hold the companies and their products accountable.
James Steyer, founder and CEO of the non-profit Common Sense Media, said: "History would indicate that many tech companies do not actually walk the walk on a voluntary pledge to act responsibly and support strong regulations."