Biden Signs Executive Order To Oversee and Invest in AI (nbcnews.com) 36
President Joe Biden signed a wide-ranging executive order on artificial intelligence Monday, setting the stage for some industry regulations and funding for the U.S. government to further invest in the technology. From a report: The order is broad, and its focuses range from civil rights and industry regulations to a government hiring spree. In a media call previewing the order Sunday, a senior White House official, who asked to not be named as part of the terms of the call, said AI has so many facets that effective regulations have to cast a wide net. "AI policy is like running into a decathlon, and there's 10 different events here," the official said. "And we don't have the luxury of just picking 'we're just going to do safety' or "we're just going to do equity' or 'we're just going to do privacy.' You have to do all of these things."
The official also called for "significant bipartisan legislation" to further advance the country's interests with AI. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a private forum in September with industry leaders but has yet to introduce significant AI legislation. Some of the order builds on a previous nonbinding agreement that seven of the top U.S. tech companies developing AI agreed to in July, like hiring outside experts to probe their systems for weaknesses and sharing their critical findings. The order leverages the Defense Production Act to legally require those companies to share safety test results with the federal government.
The official also called for "significant bipartisan legislation" to further advance the country's interests with AI. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a private forum in September with industry leaders but has yet to introduce significant AI legislation. Some of the order builds on a previous nonbinding agreement that seven of the top U.S. tech companies developing AI agreed to in July, like hiring outside experts to probe their systems for weaknesses and sharing their critical findings. The order leverages the Defense Production Act to legally require those companies to share safety test results with the federal government.
Free government money? Sign me up! (Score:3, Interesting)
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There's a formal definition of it that will limit the free money to large campaign contributors and well-connected executives.
It's doomed anyway.... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's doomed anyway at the Federal level already.
The minute one of your stated primary goals includes the word "equity", you're pretty much screwed....
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Somebody needs to develop AI to show POTUS that Congressional improvement is needed to fund things.
Congressional approval is needed for new spending or taxation, but POTUS has some discretion over how to spend money already allocated.
So if Congress has funded a pot of money for "promoting promising technology" or whatever, then Joe can sign an executive order directing that money to AI.
Re:Free government money? Sign me up! (Score:5, Interesting)
As for this topic, yes, it is a free government handout that is absolutely unhinged. It simultaneously creates tons of jobs for bureaucrats to slow the development of AI products to a crawl and shut out as many startups as possible. They are creating a situation where the only jobs for people with AI expertise will be people in government positions preventing AI products from getting made. The worst kind of stupidity. Biden could have had a better AI policy simply by *not* having an AI policy. But of course, then how will we waste all this money?
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Okay, at this point (and for the past ten years at least) everyone understands "AI" to be machine learning models that fit large datasets and make predictions based on the statistics of the datasets the models fit.
This is not my understanding at all. "AI" without qualification is effectively a meaningless term. One should not expect two people to agree on what "AI" means with any useful degree of specificity without qualification.
Your phone, the websites you browse, and the software you use all incorporate "AI" as is understood by this definition.
See above.
Re:Free government money? Sign me up! (Score:5, Interesting)
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Okay, but this is you excluding yourself from the conversation. When AI engineers, or AI professors, or AI "ethicists," or AI regulators are talking about AI, my definition is what they are referring to. To be charitable, my definition might fail to include classes of AI such as expert systems, logic programming, or fuzzy logic, but these classes of AI are primarily only interesting as historical footnotes. The only reason AI is a hot topic at all in 2023 is because of machine learning, neural networks, and the explosion in progress of the past ten years due to that one class of AI.
I don't agree with this perspective. For a recent example I would point to European AI legislation. If you read the text of it the "AI" legislation covers everything including basic algorithms, decision trees..etc. I've even had people here argue with me because they assumed a definition of AI in line with recent transformer craze.
While the only reason something might be a hot topic in the popular press or public opinion might be the latest and greatest chatbot this doesn't mean everyone is on the same p
Devil's in the details (Score:1)
As far as regulating AI, without seeing specific draft text, it's hard to know if such laws can have any teeth. I'm skeptical such is possible and practical, but if I see sound legal text, maybe I'll change my mind.
It's probably political theatre to make it look like they are "doing something" about these vague scary contraptions the whipper-snappers are cooking up. Maybe the law makers are not even intentionally trying to hoodwink us, they just don't understand what it is and hope the details somehow iron
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Okay, at this point (and for the past ten years at least) everyone on Slashdot understands "AI" to be machine learning models that fit large datasets and make predictions based on the statistics of the datasets the models fit.
The average person doesn't. Certainly, the average politician doesn't. Heck, I've been coding for 40 years and even I don't know what to call what.
Does it do anything? (Score:5, Informative)
I skimmed through the White House fact sheet, and it just sounds like the executive order is calling on the legislature and industry to focus on certain topics. I didn't see anything concrete about how the executive branch was going to do anything. Like enforce existing laws in certain ways that pertain to current applications of AI.
Perhaps I just didn't read it thoroughly enough, but there doesn't seem to be anything of substance to the executive order.
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Wishful Thinking (Score:3)
The official also called for "significant bipartisan legislation"...
Has the official been living under a rock for the past few decades?
Re:Wishful Thinking (Score:5, Insightful)
"Bipartisan" is code for "bad for everyone but corporations" since corporatism is the only thing they all agree on. He was just telling.
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I don't know why you got modded "Funny." I would have gone for "Insightful" myself.
Also, I would have said that but the last time I did I got modded as a Troll.
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Last I heard funny mods didn't grant karma, it's a means of poisoning the well.
Equity = Censorship (Score:1)
Dictatorial Proclamation (Score:3, Insightful)
We have a division of powers between the three co-equal branches of government but it seems Mr. Biden didn't get the message. He doesn't get to invent new policy nor decide what gets funded. The legislative does both and AI isn't within any mandate they've given the executive AFAIK.
Biden can sign any executive order he likes but the executive doesn't actually have this authority. On the other hand, he seems to view it as fair game to intentionally engage in actions he knows will be overturned as unlawful in court or until congress reigns him in. That's a dangerous game because it violates his oath to the Constitution and since his only de jure authority derives from the Constitution it could be argued these are personal actions on the part of Mr. Biden and he isn't acting as President at all.
Re:Dictatorial Proclamation (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the fact sheet:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/bri... [whitehouse.gov]
What exactly is he doing in there that violates separation of powers? The executive is allowed to adjust the budget priorities of agencies when allowed which is usually most the of the time as budgets from Congress aren't so specific. I don't see any new funding being spent here. If Congress want agencies to spend their budget on specific areas and not others they have to specify that otherwise it's a matter of discretion.
If anything I would say based on this list that the whole thing is rather vague and more of a signaling measure to Congress that they should pass something but also knowing full well right now that's just not gonna happen as we have a split majority right now.
it could be argued these are personal actions on the part of Mr. Biden and he isn't acting as President at all.
We could say that about every President signing executive orders, ever, how do you prove that? High bar to say this violates Article II, what would be the basis for that?
Biden is actually on track to have a to be on the lower end of EO's compared to previous administrations
https://www.presidency.ucsb.ed... [ucsb.edu]
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"If Congress want agencies to spend their budget on specific areas and not others they have to specify that"
And they do, when they set the legislative mandate for those agencies. Agencies aren't permitted to do anything beyond their congressional mandate.
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They do *sometimes* but in many way they leave the priorities up to some flexibility to the president. The only recent time I can recall this has been brought into a real major overstep was with the CFPB. This is up to Congress, famously the Federal Reserve is very independent and even sets its own budgets but that is allowed via how they built the law.
There are reams of discussion and precedent as to what that means and what it's limits are, there are reasons for the way bills are written, to include an
Re:Dictatorial Proclamation (Score:4, Informative)
You're just making all that up.
Biden does oversee the government agencies, which are already funded, and he can set the policies they implement. In this case he is instructing them to develop regulations and standards having to do with AI, which is well within his authority. He can also tell them to prioritize hiring in specific fields; "Accelerate the rapid hiring of AI professionals as part of a government-wide AI talent surge led by the Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Digital Service, U.S. Digital Corps".
Re:Dictatorial Proclamation (Score:4, Informative)
"Biden does oversee the government agencies, which are already funded, and he can set the policies they implement."
Actually he and they are bound by their congressional mandate. The President is responsible for executing the law as written by congress. He doesn't get to just take the agencies and funds they've authorized and then do whatever he wishes with them.
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The president may not get to "do whatever he wishes" with the agencies, but he definitely gets to tell them to develop regulations and standards having to do with AI, and hire people who are familiar with it. All this 'dictator' talk is nonsense. Flamebait.
Re:Dictatorial Proclamation (Score:4, Informative)
You really should look over this list. https://www.presidency.ucsb.ed... [ucsb.edu]
Apparently only a problem when democrats sign them. So far Trump is averaging more of them than Obama and Bush. Clinton seemed pretty happy with 364 but Reagan is even higher at 381.
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The issue isn't that he wrote an executive order but rather the content of the order. If he is giving an executive order on how to use AI in hiring staff or to utilize AI to execute existing mandates like detecting financial fraud or to prioritize enforcement. Another legitimate case would be how the copyright office treats AI generated work. There are things which touch on AI that are legitimate.
None of that would be manufacturing a new mandate, it's either addressing something congress has not or a decisi
useful for self-driving arena, useless in HR (Score:3)
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"AND it employs judgements using DEI parameters"
Yes but keep in mind the recent supreme court ruling against Harvard is broadly and not narrowly applicable to only universities. DEI practices are now arguably illegal under that precedent. Though there is still enough doubt that it might be a minute before anyone tests it in court.
everything is everything (Score:3)
AI must be regulated. Regulation means preventing disinformation and misinformation. Preventing disinformation and misinformation is censorship.
Everything contains, or will soon contain, AI. Therefore everything must be regulated.
Therefore everything must be censored.
Inevitable (Score:1)
In a Turn of Events, U.S. President Revealed as Undercover Chinese Spy Entangled in a Love Affair with Hamas Prostitute in Oval Office
WASHINGTON D.C. — In an unprecedented twist of events that have left political pundits and conspiracy theorists alike basking in the glorious absurdity, the President of the United States was revealed to be an undercover Chinese spy, engaged in a passionate love affair with a Hamas prostitute, right in the hallowed Oval Office.
This shocking revelation was unveiled by