By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will discuss the “risks and opportunities” artificial intelligence poses for people, society and national security during a meeting with science and technology advisers at the White House on Tuesday, an official said.
Biden, a Democrat, is scheduled to meet with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on the same day his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, surrenders in New York over charges stemming from a probe into hush money paid to a porn star.
Biden has declined to comment on Trump’s legal woes, and Democratic strategists say his focus on governing will create a politically advantageous split screen of sorts as his former rival, a Republican, deals with his legal challenges.
“The president will discuss the importance of protecting rights and safety to ensure responsible innovation and appropriate safeguards,” a White House official said in a statement ahead of Biden’s meeting.
“He will call on Congress to pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect kids and limit personal data tech companies collect on all of us,” the official said.
Companies that employ artificial intelligence or AI saw their share prices drop hard before Biden’s meeting, although the broader market was also selling off on Tuesday.
AI software company C3.ai Inc AI.N was down 24%, more than halving a nearly 40% four-session winning streak through Monday. Thailand security firm Guardforce AI GFAI.O fell 29%, data analytics firm BigBear.ai BBAI.N was down 16% and conversation intelligence company SoundHound AI SOUN.O shed 11.8% on the session.
AI is becoming a hot topic for policy makers.
The tech ethics group Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy has asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to stop OpenAI from issuing new commercial releases of GPT-4, which has wowed and appalled users with its human-like abilities to generate written responses to requests.
Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy has urged society to pause as it considers the ramifications of AI.
Last year the Biden administration released a blueprint “Bill of Rights” to help ensure users’ rights are protected as technology companies design and develop AI systems.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Stephen Coates and Mark Porter)
((jeff.mason@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 898 8300; On Twitter: @jeffmason1; Reuters Messaging: jeff.mason.thomsonreuters.com@thomsonreuters.net))
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