During a meeting with science and technology advisers, United States President Joe Biden stated that he believes artificial intelligence (AI) “could be” dangerous. However, he also acknowledged that society is yet to see how the technology will affect it.
According to Biden, technology companies hold the responsibility of ensuring the safety of their products before releasing them.
He stated, “In my view, tech companies have a responsibility to make sure their products are safe before making them public,” at the opening of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology meeting.
He also mentioned that AI could aid in addressing various challenges such as disease and climate change. Nonetheless, developers of the technology must address the “potential risks to our society, economy, and national security,” according to Biden.
Joe Biden said the effects of social media on young people’s mental health showed the harm new technologies can inflict if safeguards are not in place.
Biden’s comments come as the argument over how to govern AI is heating up. Some well-known voices are advocating for halting the advancement of the technology until safety measures can be put in place.
In an open letter published last month, a number of tech leaders including Tesla founder Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called for a pause on the rollout of AI due to the technology’s “profound risks to society and humanity.”
The latter came in response to the release of GPT-4, the follow-up to the revolutionary AI chatbot ChatGPT.
GPT-4’s California-based creator OpenAI has said the newer platform is capable of “human-level performance” in some areas, including being able to pass the bar exam with a score in the top 10 percent of applicants.