The United States must do more to address the power of artificial intelligence, President Joe Biden declared in his State of the Union address Thursday evening. Biden has advocated for stronger privacy laws and punishment for drug traffickers as he sets out his policy priorities.
“I have signed more than 400 bipartisan bills, but there is still more work to be done,” Biden told a joint session of Congress. “Increasing penalties for fentanyl trafficking. Pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online. Harness the potential of AI and protect us from harm. “Prohibit AI voice imitation, etc.”
Biden’s voice was faked in an AI-generated deepfake robocall targeting New Hampshire voters in January.
Lingo Telecom, the company behind the deepfake, has received a cease-and-desist order from the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has since banned the use of AI in robocalls as the 2024 election season heats up.
“These types of calls have increased over the past several years because this technology now mimics the voices of celebrities, political candidates, and close family members, potentially confusing consumers with misinformation,” the FCC said at the time. revealed.
The Biden administration has been working to curb AI-generated deepfakes. Last year, the White House brought together leading generative AI developers, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Anthropic, Hugging Face, IBM, Stability AI, Amazon, Meta, and Inflection, to commit to responsible AI development.
In February, the Biden administration said it would use watermarking and encryption to combat political disinformation. Later that month, Biden announced the launch of the AI Safety Lab Consortium, which includes participants such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA.
But Biden is not the only one criticizing AI. Donald Trump, Biden’s opponent in the 2024 US presidential election, also voiced opposition to AI, saying it was “too scary” in an interview with Fox Business.
After the Pope, Biden and Trump all became victims of AI-generated deepfake images, Pope Francis also spoke out against generated AI.
“We must recognize the rapid changes taking place and manage them in a way that respects the institutions and laws that protect fundamental human rights and promote integral human development,” the Pope said in a January sermon. “Artificial intelligence should serve humans’ highest potential and highest aspirations, not compete with them.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
