As one of his early executive orders, President Trump released “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence”. So, I wondered, what is the significance of this order? Was the president removing AI’s Guardrail’s? Let’s take a look back on how we got here.
What does President Trump’s AI Executive Order Call For?
President Trump’s order, signed January 23rd, is meant to maintain the United States’ dominance in AI. The order states
The United States has long been at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, driven by the strength of our free markets, world-class research institutions, and entrepreneurial spirit. To maintain this leadership, we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas.
The order then goes on to revoke one of Biden’s executive order “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” and also calls for the revision of two other government notices. However, President Trump’s executive order does not go into detail about what is in the canceled or revised documents.
What did President Biden’s now canceled executive order call for?
President Biden’s now canceled executive order was signed in October 2023. His order called for safe and secure AI, healthy competition and collaboration, responsible development, reduction of bias, and privacy protections. All of this was to happen through several directives for government agencies. These directives included calling for the development of guidelines, require some models to be reported to the government, and evaluation of government vulnerability on an ongoing basis.
Why did President Biden want guardrails on AI in the first place?
We have to remember that ChatGPT was launched in late 2022. It only took ChatGPT five days to get 1 million users. People were truly impressed with its ability to answer questions and have a conversation. This impressive ability led to some leaders in tech to ask for a pause on new large-scale AI development. Many were concerned about what could happen if AI development remained unregulated, including automating away jobs and perpetuating bias. By March 2023 tech leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak had signed a letter entitled “Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter”. Biden’s executive order was partially in response to these concerns.
It remains to be seen what this executive order will really mean. Everything in President Biden’s order seemed to be reasonable, but I’m not sure how specific it was or even if it was truly followed. I didn’t get a chance to review the other directives that were kept in place by President Trump to be later revised. It is possible there is some redundancy with those two memoranda. Hopefully, it will be enough to ensure everyone’s safety as we continue to venture into this brave new world.
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Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence
Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence
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