‘I am AI,’ Joe Biden says as he announces agreement with Google, Amazon, Meta, ChatGPT and other tech firms on new safeguards to minimize abuse and bias in its use

President Joe Biden joked he was artificial intelligence and that it was to blame for any of his mistakes during an announcement with the seven leading AI companies on new safeguards his administration brokered with them.

Executives from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instgram), Microsoft, and OpenAI (the maker of ChatGPT) joined at the president at the White House on Friday to show their support for voluntary guidelines designed to minimize abuse and bias in AI as concern about the misuse of artificial intelligence grows.

After a reporter jokingly asked leaders of seven tech companies whether they were real or AI, the president entered the Roosevelt Room and quipped: ‘I’m the AI,’  prompting much laughter.

He then added: ‘If any of you think I’m Abe Lincoln, blame it on the AI.’

Biden said the guidelines were about making ‘sure that the products that they’re producing are safe and and making public what they are and what they are.’

And, he added, they ‘underscore three fundamental principles: safety, security and trust.’

The companies, per the agreement released by the White House, will put new artificial intelligence systems through internal and external testing before their release and ask outside teams to probe their systems for security flaws, discriminatory tendencies or risks to Americans’ rights, health information or safety. 

The companies also have committed to methods for reporting vulnerabilities to their systems. 

And will also use digital watermarking to help distinguish between real photos and video and the AI-generated images known as deepfakes. 

The move comes amid concern about fake content being taken for reality and worries of bias against conservatives. New AI tools allow the developing technology to  write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images that could allow for disinformation campaigns.

The companies have agreed to publicly report flaws and risks in their technology, including effects on fairness and bias, the White House said. 

‘We’ve got to make sure that the companies are pressure testing their products as they develop them and certainly before they release them, to make sure that they don’t have unintended consequences, like being vulnerable to cyberattacks or being used to discriminate against certain people,’ White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told Bloomberg News in an interview. 

‘And the important thing — and you’ll see this throughout all the work — is they can’t grade their own homework here.’

Biden’s action is seen as an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get Congress to pass laws regulating the technology. 

The White House has been getting more involved in the growing debate over artificial intelligence. In May, Vice President Kamala Harris hosted tech leaders at the White House to tell them to seriously consider concerns about the technology. 

Consumer advocates welcomed the White House action, but warned that tech companies have a spotty history when it comes to keeping their safety and security pledges.

‘History would indicate that many tech companies do not actually walk the walk on a voluntary pledge to act responsibly and support strong regulations,’ said Jim Steyer, the founder and CEO of the advocacy group Common Sense Media, in a statement.

Per the new guidelines, companies are only required to report – rather than eliminate – risks like possible inappropriate use or bias. 

The watermarking system still needs to be developed and there are worries that even after it is, malignant actors seeking to sow disinformation on the internet could easily remove it.

The use of artificial intelligence is growing.

For example, within two months after its launch, ChatGPT had more than 100 million monthly active users – reaching that growth milestone much more quickly than TikTok and Instagram. 

But research has shown the platform has a ‘pro-environmental, left-libertarian orientation,’ the Brookings Institute noted in a report on AI.

The Biden administration is trying to regulate discrimination in AI. 

In April, the Commerce Department’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee convened top tech executives and academics to discuss ways the government could regulate AI.