Biden's Urgent Push To Regulate AI Technology: 'We've Got to Move Fast Here'

The regulation of artificial intelligence technology has become a high-priority issue for the Biden administration. President Joe Biden himself has reportedly emphasized the urgency of the matter, saying, “we’ve got to move fast here” during a recent closed-door meeting, according to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.

"Too often, technology moves faster than we do as a federal government," Zients added.

The recent history of social media serves as a cautionary tale for the government. Social media companies quietly expanded their power and influence to the point where they became too large for any government to regulate effectively.

"The trajectory of the Web 2.0 era was not inevitable — it was instead shaped by a broad range of policy choices. And we now face another moment of choice," wrote Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, in a recent opinion piece.

Khan, who's now leading a battle against Big Tech firms, fears that AI technology can help powerful tech giants further cement their places of influence.

Meanwhile, China's autocratic government has the ability to move more quickly on regulating the technology, which also puts pressure on the U.S. to act fast. The ongoing subtle conflict between the U.S. and China has placed artificial intelligence at its core, with the Biden administration implementing several measures intended to curtail China’s dominance in the sector.

Biden jumps on the AI handle: A recent report by The Wall Street Journal said that Biden's dealings with the proposed dangers of generative AI technology have recently shifted into a more urgent stance. Bruce Reed, Biden's deputy chief of staff, said that the president "views this as an existential challenge." 

Last week, the president met with seven top executives from Big Tech companies which included Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL, Amazon.com Inc AMZN and Microsoft Corp MSFT and Meta Platforms Inc META.

Inflection, Anthropic and OpenAI were also at the meeting, representing the AI-specific side of the industry.

Biden announced at a press conference that “these seven companies have agreed to voluntary commitments to responsible innovation.” He lightened the mood minutes earlier by joking about his image being digitally created, quipping, “I’m the AI,” and “If any of you think I’m Abe Lincoln, blame it on the AI.”

Part of the deal involves adding watermarks to AI-generated images to inform the public of their origin, in an effort to avoid the potential catastrophic outcomes of having fake pictures and videos of politicians saying and doing things that never occurred.

The guardrails, however, are voluntary and do not serve as an official piece of regulation. 

So far, mandatory regulation around AI has not become law. In June, Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) underscored the need for bipartisan legislation governing AI, after two bipartisan bills were introduced, which intend to regulate different angles of the technology.

The White House has been advocating for AI regulation since last year. In May, the Biden administration released a report highlighting the dangers behind the technology, accompanied by a review of a blueprint for an "AI bill of rights" which advises the creation of legislation for regulating AI and was first released last October.

Does The Future Of AI Regulation Die With Biden? Biden's most likely competitor for the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump, has not made his intentions around AI regulation as clear as the current president, as advancements in the technology had significantly less penetration when he was in office.

In 2020, Trump signed an executive order which intended to set guidance for use of artificial intelligence in government decision-making by federal agencies. In 2019, Trump launched the American AI Initiative, which directed federal agencies to prioritize investments in research and development of artificial intelligence. 

Read also: AI & The Presidential Race: Biden, Trump, DeSantis Aren’t Just Battling Each Other

The image was created using artificial intelligence with Midjourney AI.