New DHS AI Safety Board Sparks Debate Over Tech Industry Influence and AI Governance

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GPT-4 summary:

The Department of Homeland Security has recently established an Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board featuring prominent tech leaders, including OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. This initiative, directed by President Biden, aims to address the complexities and potential threats of AI integration within vital U.S. infrastructure. Comprising experts from the tech sector, academia, and civil rights organizations, the board will convene quarterly to strategize on protective measures against AI misuse, particularly from foreign adversaries.

Despite the board’s heavyweight lineup, it has sparked criticism for its potential to prioritize corporate interests over public welfare, given its tech-dominated roster. Scheduled to meet for the first time in early May, the board’s discussions are anticipated to significantly influence the future regulatory landscape of AI technologies, focusing on safe adoption across critical sectors like transportation, energy, and internet services. Critics advocate for a more diverse representation to ensure a balance of interests and a comprehensive approach to AI safety and security governance.

Here’s a full member list of the inaugural AI Safety and Security Board as named by the DHS:

  1. Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI
  2. Dario Amodei, CEO and Co-Founder, Anthropic
  3. Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines
  4. Rumman Chowdhury, Ph.D., CEO, Humane Intelligence
  5. Alexandra Reeve Givens, President and CEO, Center for Democracy and Technology
  6. Bruce Harrell, Mayor of Seattle, Washington; Chair, Technology and Innovation Committee, United States Conference of Mayors
  7. Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
  8. Vicki Hollub, President and CEO, Occidental Petroleum
  9. Jensen Huang, President and CEO, Nvidia
  10. Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM
  11. Fei-Fei Li, Ph.D., Co-Director, Stanford Human-centered Artificial Intelligence Institute
  12. Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland
  13. Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft
  14. Shantanu Narayen, Chair and CEO, Adobe
  15. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet
  16. Arati Prabhakar, Ph.D., Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; Director, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
  17. Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco; Chair, Business Roundtable
  18. Adam Selipsky, CEO, Amazon Web Services
  19. Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
  20. Nicol Turner Lee, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution
  21. Kathy Warden, Chair, CEO and President, Northrop Grumman
  22. Maya Wiley, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
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Most of these people sound too busy to be actively working on securing the nation out of patriotism and love for democracy :confused:

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Thanks @PaulBellow. On these interesting topics of US AI regulation, one can also explore:

AI.gov: Making AI Work for the American People

The Biden-Harris Administration is dedicated to ensuring the U.S. leads in safe, secure, and trustworthy AI innovation to harness the opportunities of AI while mitigating its risks.

Artificial Intelligence | U.S. Department of Commerce

On October 30, President Joseph R. Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) to build U.S. capacity to evaluate and mitigate the risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to ensure safety, security, and trust while promoting an innovative, competitive AI ecosystem that supports workers and protects consumers. The U.S. Department of Commerce will play a key role in implementing the EO, combining sophisticated standards and evaluation capabilities with a robust combination of reporting requirements and voluntary measures.

Specifically, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will be responsible for carrying out a significant portion of the EO’s objectives.

“The Commerce Department plays a pivotal role in the U.S. government’s approach of seizing the potential that comes with the development of advanced AI, while mitigating dangerous capabilities or risks to safety. Today’s executive order reaffirms that leadership as our Department prepares to undertake significant responsibilities to carry out the President’s vision to build a safer, more secure world,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “Building on the voluntary commitments secured from leading American companies earlier this year, the President is taking a critical step forward to facilitate and incentivize safe and responsible innovation in AI.”

Also, soapboxing, let us remember the unusual closed-door meeting, or private forum, in the origin story of US AI regulation.

Tech industry leaders endorse regulating artificial intelligence at rare summit in Washington | AP News (September 13, 2023)

The nation’s biggest technology executives on Wednesday loosely endorsed the idea of government regulations for artificial intelligence at an unusual closed-door meeting in the U.S. Senate. But there is little consensus on what regulation would look like, and the political path for legislation is difficult.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who organized the private forum on Capitol Hill as part of a push to legislate artificial intelligence, said he asked everyone in the room — including almost two dozen tech executives, advocates and skeptics — whether government should have a role in the oversight of artificial intelligence, and “every single person raised their hands, even though they had diverse views,” he said.

Musk said the meeting “might go down in history as being very important for the future of civilization.”

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Not invited: anybody open-sourcing AI.

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@_j, you raise a good point about including the open-source community in public-sector programs. I wonder how that community might select its representatives.

The DHS does have numerous other programs with social-media companies including to mitigate online harms, to mitigate misinformation and disinformation, to protect the public, and to protect our elections.

With respect to AI governance, in my opinion, future AI-related Congressional and regulatory meetings should be open and transparent. This would help to stave off comparisons between the origins of AI governance and American historical events such as the Jekyll Island meetings which led to the founding of the Federal Reserve System.