Biden’s AI Order Is Government’s Bid for Dominance

livemint.com:

President Biden rightly says the U.S. is in a technological arms race with China. Then why is he ordering an across-the-board government intrusion into artificial intelligence (AI) that will slow American innovation? “To realize the promise of AI and avoid the risks, we need to govern this technology, not—and there’s no other way around it, in my view.

It must be governed," Mr. Biden said last week in issuing a 63-page executive order. He called it “the most significant action any government anywhere in the world has ever taken on AI safety, security, and trust." This isn’t reassuring.

*** AI covers a broad sweep of applications including chatbots, and deep-learning and large-language models that mimic human neural networks at exponentially higher power. Most large businesses already use AI in some form, and it has enormous potential to boost labor productivity, advance human knowledge and save lives. It also carries risks, especially if generative AI eventually resembles human cognition.

The President’s order includes a few useful ideas such as providing guidance on authenticating content and water-marking to clearly label AI-generated content so Americans can discern if, say, a political ad includes manipulated images or voices. The order also seeks to increase visas for foreign workers with AI skills. Yet it isn’t clear that government has anything close to the expertise to understand AI, which is developing rapidly, much less the wisdom to know how to regulate its various applications.