At a White House event, Microsoft and six other AI leaders made voluntary commitments developed by the Biden-Harris Administration to advance safe, secure, and trustworthy AI. This is an important step on the road to unlocking the promise of AI while addressing the risks of this emerging technology. Congress is expected to focus on developing AI legislation in the fall.
For more information on the collaborative effort between the government and the tech sector to advance AI safety and security, read this blog from Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. For additional coverage, see stories from CNN and Politico.
Our roundup of tech policy news and a featured podcast follow below. Thank you for reading!
This Week in Washington
- CyberScoop: The Senate Commerce Committee has advanced two bills, the Kids Online Safety Act and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, to protect children online despite critics claiming that they could end up making the internet less safe for them.
- Nextgov: President Biden answered the call of tech leaders and appointed Harry Coker, Jr., the former executive director of the National Security Agency, to fill the permanent National Cyber Director role, a position that has been vacant for the last six months.
- Reuters: The Biden administration has asked a federal appeals court to lift an order restricting their engagement with social media companies, believing that these restrictions will hurt its ability to combat misinformation online.
- Nextgov: Following an increase in cyberattacks, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) will adopt new rules requiring companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents and risk management tactics.
- CyberScoop: During the FBI Atlanta Cyber Threat Summit, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Director of the Cyber Division Bryan Vorndran warned that China remains the largest cyber threat to the U.S. in both capacity and ability to weaponize data with the arrival of AI-enabled operations.
- StateScoop: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that applications for nearly $1 billion in funding for expanded internet on tribal lands are now open. This funding is the last of the $3 billion allocated to the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, a part of the Biden administration’s Internet for All initiative.
Article Summary
- Microsoft: Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI have joined forces to launch Frontier Model Forum, a new industry body that will focus on ensuring the safe and responsible development of AI.
- Bleeping Computer: States across the U.S. are enacting new data privacy legislation in 2023, all of which focus on protecting consumer information that is collected by organizations.
- Wall Street Journal: School districts across the U.S. are joining lawsuits against social media companies, claiming that they are harming their children; however, the platforms believe they are protected under the Internet liability shield.
Featured Podcast
The New York Podcast
- Hard Fork Podcast
Dario Amodei has been anxious about A.I. since before it was cool to be anxious about A.I. After a few years working at OpenAI, he decided to do something about that anxiety. The result was Claude: an A.I.-powered chatbot built by Anthropic, Mr. Amodei’s A.I. start-up. Today, Mr. Amodei joins Kevin and Casey to talk about A.I. anxiety and why it’s so difficult to build A.I. safely. (Dario Amodei, C.E.O. of Anthropic, on the Paradoxes of A.I. Safety and Netflix’s ‘Deep Fake Love’ – July 21, 2023)