Biden’s New Power Grab: Raise your hand if you think the president can competently oversee software development; Biden to Use Emergency Powers to Mitigate AI Risks: Executive order seeks to manage artificial-intelligence threats from privacy to national security

Biden’s New Power Grab:

Raise your hand if you think the president can competently oversee software development.

Americans with deep concerns about the mental acuity of President Joe Biden are being asked to believe he is competent and empowered to direct the country’s technological innovation. Mr. Biden is now claiming emergency authority—without any act of Congress—to seize control over the development of artificial intelligence. Conservatives may be angry with Silicon Valley for a host of reasons. But the country and its future prosperity require them to mount a vigorous opposition to this massive transfer of power from private innovators to public bureaucrats.

The Journal’s John McKinnon, Sabrina Siddiqui and Dustin Volz reported early Monday:

The Biden administration plans to invoke emergency federal powers as part of a new executive order aimed at reining in the risks of artificial intelligence, a new technology as powerful as it is potentially disruptive.

President Biden will release on Monday an order invoking the Korean War-era Defense Production Act which would compel major AI companies to notify the government when developing any system that poses a “serious risk to national security, national economic security or national public health and safety,” according to fact sheet that White House aides shared over the weekend.

A generally toothless and useless Beltway agency is about to become the formidable gatekeeper for U.S. software innovation. The Journal account continues: —>READ MORE HERE

Biden to Use Emergency Powers to Mitigate AI Risks:

Executive order seeks to manage artificial-intelligence threats from privacy to national security

The Biden administration plans to invoke emergency federal powers as part of a new executive order aimed at reining in the risks of artificial intelligence, a new technology as powerful as it is potentially disruptive.

President Biden will release on Monday an order invoking the Korean War-era Defense Production Act which would compel major AI companies to notify the government when developing any system that poses a “serious risk to national security, national economic security or national public health and safety,” according to fact sheet that White House aides shared over the weekend.

The order aims to step into a global regulatory vacuum over a fast-growing technology. It seeks to mitigate risks from privacy to job losses and underscores an effort to address the sometimes slow pace of response to the new technology among those in Congress and other government agencies.

The president has identified AI regulation as a priority for his administration and held discussions with tech CEOs, civil society leaders and labor unions on how to govern the rapidly-evolving technology without stifling competition.

“I have a keen interest in AI and convened key experts on how to harness the power of artificial intelligence for good while protecting people from the profound risk it also presents,” Biden said in San Francisco last month.

A central pillar of the order will be an effort to manage such national security risks as cybersecurity threats. It addresses fears that AI might fuel a global arms race of more powerful cyber weapons and unleash an avalanche of online disinformation, such as deep-fake images or videos that might be nearly impossible to distinguish from authentic content, officials said.

The order will require AI companies to tell the Commerce Department how they are working to protect their technology from malicious use, a senior administration official said. It will also direct the use of AI to help find and fix vulnerabilities in critical software and direct cloud-service providers and resellers to notify the government within 90 days when a foreigner uses their services to train large AI systems, the official said. —>READ MORE HERE

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