Several major US tech companies, including giants such as Adobe, IBM, and Nvidia, have signed on to President Biden’s voluntary commitments on AI. This initiative also gained support from five other firms: Salesforce, Palantir, Scale AI, Stability, and Cohere.
Back in July, during an event held at the White House, Amazon, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft had already pledged their support to voluntary commitments when they were initially introduced.
According to the Biden-Harris administration, all the companies made detailed pledges, including watermarking AI-generated content. These commitments highlight three fundamental principles that should drive AI’s development: safety, security, and trust. The companies also commit to performing security checks on their AI models before they are launched. The testing would be managed by independent third-party experts. The signatories will also share information on managing AI risks industry-wide and with governments, civil society, the tech community, and academia.
Why does it matter?
This year, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to remove bias in the development and use of new technologies, including AI. The voluntary commitments made by major US tech companies are a significant step towards responsible AI development and management of the risks posed by AI. However, it is seen as a temporary measure, given that the US Congress is currently engaged in hearings and discussions about possible AI legislation.
