The bosses of OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are among the most high-profile members of a new federal council created to advise the US government on the “safe and secure” use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The new committee will help authorities combat AI-related disruptions that may “impact national or economic security, public health, or safety,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement released Friday.
President Joe Biden tasked the department’s secretary general, Alejandro Mayorkas, with setting up this 22-member advisory body.
Mr. Mayorkas stressed that AI as a transformation tool “presents real risks.”
“The council will help the Department of Homeland Security stay at the forefront of evolving threats posed by hostile state actors and strengthen our national security,” the statement said.
AI can be used by hostile forces to enable faster and larger-scale attacks against targets such as pipelines, railways and other strategic infrastructure, the document says.
“Artificial intelligence is the most transformative technology of our time, and we must ensure that it is deployed safely and responsibly,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in the press release.
The CEOs of Adobe, Alphabet, Advanced Micro Devices, Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Delta Airlines and Northrop Grumman are also among the committee’s most influential members.
It also includes academics and politicians, including the governor of Maryland.
The body will meet for the first time in early May and make recommendations for the safe adoption of AI “in the essential services that Americans rely on every day.”
