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The White House has confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic on Thursday to discuss the responsible development of artificial intelligence. In the meeting, Harris will emphasize the importance of ethical and trustworthy innovation and the need for safeguards that can mitigate AI’s potential risks.
Other senior members of the Biden administration, including Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar, will also join the vice president in the meeting.
According to an invitation viewed by CNBC, the event will feature a “frank discussion” between the officials and the CEOs regarding AI, with a particular focus on the risks associated with the technology’s “current and near-term” development.
When contacted, Google and OpenAI representatives did not respond to requests for comments, while a Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment. However, a representative for Anthropic has confirmed the company’s participation in the meeting. The use of generative AI has gained significant public attention following the release of OpenAI’s widely popular chatbot, ChatGPT, in late 2022.
Over the past few months, Microsoft has been incorporating OpenAI’s generative technology into various products, as part of its multi-year and multi-billion-dollar investment in the company. In February, Google released its own generative chatbot named Bard, and in March, Anthropic unveiled its chatbot called Claude. This comes after generative AI gained public attention with the release of OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT, late last year. While a representative for Anthropic confirmed their attendance at the meeting, there has been no immediate response from Google and OpenAI representatives declined to comment.
The potential of generative AI has garnered excitement from many experts, but it has also raised questions and concerns from regulators and tech industry giants. Geoffrey Hinton, known as “the godfather of AI,” reportedly left his long-standing position at Google in part to voice his worries about the potential dangers of AI. Similarly, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, joined over 27,000 signatories of an open letter in March urging AI labs to suspend development.
According to the White House, the meeting on Thursday is a part of the Biden administration’s wider attempt to connect with specialists on the topic of AI and guarantee that AI innovations are secure before they are introduced to the general public.
