President Biden of the United States announced that in order to improve the safety of AI = artificial intelligence, IT companies have agreed to promote measures to identify whether a video was made using AI.
As the use of generative AI that automatically produces text and images is rapidly expanding, U.S. President Joe Biden met with executives of seven companies that are developing AI, including a major IT company, at the White House on May 21.
In a speech before the meeting, President Biden announced that the companies had agreed to advance technological development while ensuring safety.
Specifically, in light of concerns about the spread of false information through fake videos and audios that are difficult to distinguish from the real thing created using AI called "deepfakes," each company will proceed with the development of a mechanism that allows users to identify whether or not they were generated by AI.
In addition, external experts will participate in the development stage of new AI-based services to verify the social impact and safety.
In his speech, President Biden welcomed the voluntary efforts of each company, and stated that he would "work with both Democrats and Republicans to formulate appropriate legislation and regulations," and expressed his intention to further advance measures, including legislation.
Expert: "It's a very good step"
Paul Barrett of New York University, who is an expert on the impact of disinformation using AI and how to deal with it, said in an interview with NHK, "This is a very good step, and companies can take immediate action without waiting for legislation."
"The weakness of this approach is that it is not enforceable and does not have clear standards that companies must achieve, and Congress and the executive branch need to move toward passing legislation that would set these standards and require the disclosure of information about how products are made," he said. Rather than leaving it to companies to make voluntary efforts, he suggested that legislative and executive branches should also proceed with rule-making and be actively involved in safety measures.