Apple signs the White House’s commitment to AI safety
Apple has joined 15 other technology companies in signing a voluntary commitment with the White House to develop safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI). The agreement, announced on Friday, marks a significant step towards implementing the White House's guidelines for AI development. Apple will soon launch its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, which will be integrated into its core products, making it accessible to its 2 billion users.
The commitment follows the White House's announcement in July 2023, where 16 technology companies, including Amazon, DeepAI, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and DeepAI, pledged to adhere to the government's guidelines for developing generative AI. Apple's decision to join this initiative is seen as an attempt to demonstrate its willingness to comply with federal regulations on AI development.
The White House's voluntary commitment focuses on several key areas, including red-teaming AI models before their public release, sharing information about model weights confidentially, and developing content labeling systems to distinguish between AI-generated and human-generated content. Apple and other participating companies have agreed to implement these measures to ensure the safe and secure development of AI.
The White House has also announced that it will soon release a report on the benefits, risks, and implications of open-source foundation models. This report is significant because it could have a major impact on the greater AI industry. Some advocates argue that limiting access to powerful AI models could pose safety risks, while others believe that restricting access would stifle innovation and research.
The Department of Commerce has also made significant progress on tasks set out by the October executive order. Federal agencies have hired over 200 AI-related personnel, provided computational resources to more than 80 research teams, and released several frameworks for developing AI. The government's efforts aim to promote the safe and responsible development of AI technologies.
In summary, Apple's commitment to the White House's voluntary guidelines demonstrates its willingness to work towards developing safe and secure AI technologies. While the effectiveness of these commitments remains to be seen, they mark an important step towards ensuring that AI is developed responsibly and with minimal risk.
