What the departing White House chief tech advisor has to say on AI

Abstraction: Biden OSTP director reflects on AI risks and policy accomplishments

Key points:

• Arati Prabhakar, first to demo ChatGPT to President Biden, led the 2023 executive order on AI safety and transparency (voluntary participation)
• Deepfakes and image-based sexual abuse fully manifested as predicted; biological weapons risk turned out marginal compared to baseline Google-search accessibility
• California AI safety bill vetoed as impractical — no one actually knows how to assess model safety; deep public R&D needed
• CHIPS Act: all five leading advanced-node semiconductor makers (Intel, TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) now building in US — no other region will have all five
• Immigration reform stalled, hurting STEM talent pipelines as collateral damage; strategic competition with China complicates open-door policy
• Trust in science eroded partly because US biomedical excellence hasn't translated to health outcomes — 3 dozen countries have longer life expectancies

Connections: Arati Prabhakar · AI Policy · AI Safety · AI Regulation

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/02/1107534/what-the-departing-white-house-chief-tech-advisor-has-to-say-on-ai/