Vice President Kamala Harris embarked on a trip to the United Kingdom for a summit on artificial intelligence hosted by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Her visit follows President Joe Biden’s recent signing of an executive order on “safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence,” which marks the farthest-reaching move on AI at the federal level.
The executive order outlined several key directives, including a call for the Department of Commerce to develop guidelines for clearly labeling content that is generated by AI. Additionally, it mandates that developers working on AI systems with the potential to pose national security risks must share safety test results with the government before making their technology publicly available.
The order also mentions funding research for technologies that protect individual privacy in an age of AI. President Biden stressed that the order’s primary objective is to safeguard fundamental rights, such as personal privacy, which can be at risk in the absence of appropriate safeguards.
While the executive order addresses numerous AI-related concerns, it is important to note that executive orders have limitations. For more comprehensive AI regulation, legislative action would be required. In this regard, President Biden has called upon Congress to take action.
The summit is scheduled to take place at Bletchley Park, a historic site. Notably, during World War II, a team of code breakers worked there, using early computing devices to decrypt Nazi messages. In addition to Vice President Harris, leading AI scientists and tech executives, including Elon Musk, will be in attendance.