Meta and Google are amongst a bunch of seven Big Tech firms which have pledged to responsibly develop artificial intelligence in the face of increasing scrutiny of potential threats to society.
The businesses – Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI – presented a set of voluntary commitments during Friday’s meeting with President Biden.
The guarantees come as firms are embroiled in fierce competition to dominate the AI field, whilst experts including Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warn that unchecked growth could pose threats starting from massive job losses to the spread of misinformation to the possible extinction of humanity.
“These commitments, which firms have decided to make immediately, highlight three principles that should be fundamental to the future of AI – safety, security and trust – and mark a critical step towards the development of responsible AI.” The White House said in a fact sheet on the talks.
The broad agreement includes pacts to conduct extensive testing to ensure AI products are secure before releasing them to the public, conduct cybersecurity checks, introduce a “watermarking system” to discover AI-generated content, and conduct further research into potential risk aspects resembling user privacy and harmful bias in AI systems.
![Altman herself](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013918482.jpg?w=1024)
The commitments come amid increasing federal scrutiny of artificial intelligence technology in the wake of ChatGPT’s rise in popularity over the past few months.
Nevertheless, since lawmakers have yet to implement any formal regulations on the matter, firms is not going to face any consequences for violations as they compete for dominance in an emerging field.
![Sundar Pichai](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013111874.jpg?w=1024)
“We are going to hold them accountable for their execution,” said White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told the Wall Street Journal. “Corporations can and can have to do greater than they do now, and so can the federal government.”
As reported by The Post, the rise of AI-generated content could possibly be a significant problem ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with experts warning that technology platforms are currently ill-equipped to deal with the influx.
![Zuckerberg](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000012044438-8.jpg?w=1024)
In May, Altman and “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton were amongst a bunch of AI leaders who signed a press release that said “reducing the risk of extinction by AI needs to be a worldwide priority alongside other societal threats resembling pandemics and nuclear war.”
![Development of artificial intelligence](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013714834-3.jpg?w=1024)
Altman also testified at Capitol that the AI industry would profit from government regulation — and admitted that his biggest fear was that advanced AI technology could “do significant damage to the world” without proper protective barriers.
Meanwhile, critics say Altman and other unlucky AI are encouraged to push through regulation because it could raise the barrier to entry for potential rivals and make it harder for them to compete with deep-pocketed industry leaders.