Biden Takes First Step to Regulate Artificial Intelligence with Executive Order

October 31, 2023: President Joe Biden has signed an important order on Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). He wants companies to tell the government if their A.I. systems could help bad people or countries make very dangerous weapons.

The order also wants to make it hard for fake videos and fake news to fool people.

Mr. Biden said at the White House, “Deep fakes use A.I. to hurt people’s good name, spread fake stories, and cheat people.”

He worries that someone could change a short clip of a person’s voice to make it say bad things. He even saw a fake video of himself and was shocked.

This action shows that America, a leader in A.I. tech, will also lead in making rules for it. Vice President Kamala Harris said, “We have a duty to make sure A.I. is safe for everyone.” She will go to the United Kingdom to talk about this at a big meeting.

But the new rule is just the first step. Biden said, “We still need Congress to help.”

The rule can control A.I. used by the government but not much in private companies.

The rule has many parts. It also wants to make America’s A.I. tech better and stop China from getting ahead.

Big tech companies like Microsoft and Google agree with this order. They worry that if A.I. is misused, they could be in trouble. The new rule was made using an old law from the Korean War time. This rule says companies must test their A.I. so it can’t be used to make very bad weapons like nuclear bombs.

They must tell the government but not the public about the tests. The rule also wants to put a special mark on photos, videos, and sound made by A.I.

This makes it easy to find where they come from. President Biden thinks this will help people know what is real and what is fake.

Some experts say this rule asks for a lot but it will be hard to do all of it. Sarah Kreps, a professor, said it’s hard for the government to hire A.I. experts because private companies pay more.