Federal AI safety board lands big names
The advisory board being assembled by the government to focus on the secure use of artificial intelligence (AI) has landed some of the industry’s biggest names.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang have all joined the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, reports The Wall Street Journal. That group will work with the Department of Homeland Security on how to use AI within critical infrastructure in the U.S. Among its tasks will be coming up with recommendations for guarding everything from power-grid operators to the transportation and manufacturing sectors from AI-driven attacks.
Other members of the board include Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastain and Northrup Grumman CEO Kathy Warden, along with the Governor of Maryland and mayor of Seattle. Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, will act as chair. The board will initially meet in May and then quarterly thereafter.
The board is a result of an executive order from the Biden administration last year, which focused on regulating the development of AI. A description on the Homeland Security website says the board will include “AI experts from the private sector and government that advise the Secretary and the critical infrastructure community” and provide “information and recommendations for improving security, resilience, and incident response related to the use of AI in critical infrastructure.”
That same order requires AI companies to notify the government when they develop a system that could pose a “serious risk to national security, national economic security or national public health and safety.”
AI, of course, has many potential upsides in healthcare and safety, but it comes with risks. “A failure to deploy AI in a safe and secure and responsible manner when it comes to critical infrastructure can be devastating,” Mayorkas told the Journal.
