New Delhi: Leading AI companies including OpenAI, Alphabet ( GOOGL.O ) and Meta Platforms ( META.O ) have made voluntary commitments to the White House to implement measures such as watermarking AI-generated content to help secure the technology, the Biden administration said.
The companies – which include Anthropic, Inflection, Amazon.com ( AMZN.O ) and OpenAI partner Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) – have pledged to thoroughly test systems before releasing them and share information on how to reduce risks and invest in cybersecurity.
The move is seen as a win for the Biden administration’s efforts to regulate technology that has seen a surge in investment and consumer popularity. As generative AI, which uses data to create new content like ChatGPT’s human-voiced prose, has become widely popular this year, lawmakers around the world have begun to consider how to mitigate the emerging technology’s dangers to national security and the economy.
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US Senate Majority Chuck Schumer in June called for “comprehensive legislation” to ensure protections over artificial intelligence. Congress is considering a bill that would require political ads to disclose whether AI was used to create images or other content.
President Joe Biden, who is hosting executives from seven companies at the White House on Friday, is also working on an executive order and bipartisan legislation on AI technology.
As part of the effort, seven companies have committed to creating a system to “watermark” all types of content, from text, images, audio to AI-generated video so users know when the technology has been used.
This watermark, embedded in the content in a technical manner, will likely make it easier for users to identify deep-fake images or audio that, for example, may show violence that did not happen, create better scandals or distort the image of a politician to put the person in an unfavorable light.
It is not clear how watermarking will be evident in data sharing.
Companies have pledged to focus on protecting users’ privacy as AI develops and ensuring the technology is free from bias and not used to discriminate against vulnerable groups. Other commitments include developing AI solutions to scientific problems such as medical research and mitigating climate change.
