In an effort to set up new national regulations on the use of AI, the Biden Administration has just issued a new and sweeping executive order on that very subject. It seeks to set up new standards for AI safety and could affect how the companies that are leading those efforts, including Microsoft, will develop AI systems in the future.
In a fact sheet on the executive order posted on the White House site, the Biden Administration has several different categories on how it wants AI to be regulated in the US government and also on ordinary US citizens.
Under the executive order, the Biden Administration is going to ask for some major information from generative AI developers:
In accordance with the Defense Production Act, the Order will require that companies developing any foundation model that poses a serious risk to national security, national economic security, or national public health and safety must notify the federal government when training the model, and must share the results of all red-team safety tests. These measures will ensure AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy before companies make them public.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology will also be asked to create "rigorous standards" on AI testing.
The executive order also has several directives made to help ordinary citizens avoid fraud and other actions that might affect them with the use of AI systems. They include creating guidance to keep groups from "from being used to exacerbate discrimination." It also wants principles to be made to help keep workers from being displaced by AI:
These principles and best practices will benefit workers by providing guidance to prevent employers from undercompensating workers, evaluating job applications unfairly, or impinging on workers’ ability to organize.
The Biden Administration has also set up a new website, AI.gov, that in part will serve as a place for workers with AI skills to find jobs in the federal government.
This executive order comes as Microsoft is about to make a huge push into AI on Windows PC and for its productivity software. Its Copilot for Windows system is slowly being pushed out to Windows 11 users and will be fully released in mid-November. On November 1, Windows 365 Copilot launches for enterprise users costing $30 a month.
