US President Joe Biden said it remains to be seen whether artificial intelligence (AI) is dangerous, but underscored that technology companies had a responsibility to ensure their products were safe before making them public.
Biden told science and technology advisers that AI could help in addressing disease and climate change, but it was also important to address potential risks to society, national security and the economy.
“Tech companies have a responsibility, in my view, to make sure their products are safe before making them public,” he said at the start of a meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
When asked if AI was dangerous, he said, “It remains to be seen. Could be.”
The president said social media had already illustrated the harm that powerful technologies can do without the right safeguards, including on mental health.
He reiterated a call for Congress to pass bipartisan privacy legislation to put limits on personal data that technology companies collect, ban advertising targeted at children, and to prioritize health and safety in product development.
Shares of companies that employ artificial intelligence or AI dropped sharply before Biden's meeting, although the broader market was also selling off on Tuesday.
AI is becoming a hot topic for policymakers.
The tech ethics group Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to stop OpenAI from issuing new commercial releases of GPT-4, which has wowed and appalled users with its human-like abilities to generate written responses to requests.
Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy has urged society to pause as it considers the ramifications of AI.
Last year the Biden administration released a blueprint "bill of rights" to help ensure users' rights are protected as technology companies design and develop AI systems.
