The National Science Foundation also announced a $140 million investment in seven new AI research centers.
The US government, through the office of Vice President Kamala Harris, met with CEOs of companies leading in AI development on May 4th. The meeting aimed to discuss the risks and potentials associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in light of recent happenings in the AI space.
The Vice President, along with several Biden administration advisers in science, national security, and policy met the CEOs of OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic. According to the VP, the meeting was to “discuss the responsibility that governments and companies have to mitigate risks to protect the public”.
Interstingly, President Joe Biden also stopped by at the meeting to emphasize the significant potential and dangers posed by AI development. The President also asked for the input of the CEOs on what may be necessary to protect society while pursuing advancement.
All Out on AI
Asides from meeting with the CEOs, the US government also announced further plans to promote AI innovation. The administration announced it will enact policies to guide the usage of AI systems by Federal agencies.
The National Science Foundation also announced a $140 million investment in seven new AI research centers. Together with the other eighteen AI research centers, these centers will investigate how to apply AI to topical issues like climate change, agriculture and public health.
Likewise, the administration also invited the CEOs to participate in the public evaluation of AI systems. The evaluation will take place during the DEFCON hacker convention in August.
Meta CEO Exempted from Meeting on AI Development
Meanwhile, it was surprising for many that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was not in the meeting. After losing over $13.7 billion to its metaverse efforts in 2022, Mark announced a pivot of its operations. Recently, he suggested that the company was putting most of its capital into the AI space.
According to Zuckerberg, their “single largest investment is in advancing AI and building it into every one of our products”. Despite this ‘heavy’ investment, Meta does not yet offer any generative AI tool. This may be the reason the CEO was not invited to the meeting.
According to an unnamed official, only CEOs of companies leading in the consumer-facing AI products space were invited to the meeting.
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