Apple Inc. is the latest company to agree to a set of voluntary safeguards for artificial intelligence crafted by President Joe Biden’s administration as it tries to guide the development of the emerging technology and encourage firms to protect consumers.
The administration announced Friday that the technology giant is joining the ranks of OpenAI Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others in committing to test their AI systems for any discriminatory tendencies, security flaws or national security risks.
The principles call for companies to transparently share the results of those tests with governments, civil society and academia — and to report any vulnerabilities.
The pledge comes as Apple is set to incorporate OpenAI’s chatbot application, ChatGPT, into its voice-command assistant on iPhones as part of a new suite of AI features — a partnership between a tech powerhouse and one of the most influential artificial intelligence startups.
After the announcement of the Apple, OpenAI partnership, Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk vowed to ban Apple devices from his companies if OpenAI’s artificial intelligence software is integrated at the operating system level. He called it a security risk. Musk has his own AI startup called xAI, with a chatbot named Grok.
Artificial intelligence has exploded into the mainstream in recent years, as more people become familiar with the technology and discover everyday uses for it. Its use in law enforcement, hiring and housing, however, have drawn criticism over allegations that the products foster discrimination.
Biden has regularly touted the benefits of AI technology while also warning about the potential dangers and seeking to ensure that industry is more responsible for ensuring its products are safe.
The White House guidelines, while comprehensive, are not enforceable; leaving the administration to take companies at their word that they will adhere to the standards. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress have expressed desire to regulate AI, but legislation has taken a back-seat to other priorities, leaving Biden to act alone.
Biden signed a sweeping executive order last year that required powerful AI systems to submit to testing to be eligible for purchase by the federal government.
He is scheduled to receive an Oval Office briefing on the progress on his staff’s implementation of the directive on Friday, according to a White House official.
