"Biden releases AI executive order directing agencies to develop safety guidelines", 30 October 2023

President Joe Biden signed an executive order providing rules around generative AI, ahead of any legislation coming from lawmakers. The order has eight goals: to create new standards for AI safety and security, protect privacy, advance equity and civil rights, stand up for consumers, patients, and students, support workers, promote innovation and competition, advance US leadership in AI technologies, and ensure the responsible and effective government use of the technology...

...The National Institute of Standards and Safety (NIST) will be responsible for developing standards to “red team” AI models before public release, while the Department of Energy and Department of Homeland Security are directed to address the potential threat of AI to infrastructure and the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and cybersecurity risks. Developers of large AI models like OpenAI ‘s GPT and Meta’s Llama 2 are required to share safety test results. 

The Biden administration would only provide a briefing sourced to a senior official who said:

“We’re not going recall publically available models that are out there,” the official said. “Existing models are still subject to the anti-discrimination rules already in place.”...

...The order also seeks federal support for the development of “privacy-preserving” techniques and technologies...

...Part of the order plans to prevent the use of AI to discriminate, including addressing algorithmic discrimination and ensuring fairness when utilizing the technology for sentencing, parole, and surveillance. It also orders government agencies to provide guidelines for landlords, Federal benefits programs, and contracts on how to prevent AI from exacerbating discrimination...

...Agencies are directed to address job displacement and produce a report on the impact of AI on the labor market...

...The Biden administration first released an AI Bill of Rights outlining a set of principles developers of AI models should follow. These were later turned into a series of agreements between the White House and several AI players, including Meta, Google, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Adobe.

But, an executive order is not a permanent law and generally only lasts the length of Biden’s administration. Lawmakers are still discussing how to regulate AI, though some politicians said they want to pass laws around AI before the end of the year.