US Govt Takes New Initiatives to Study AI Risks, Determine Impact on Workers

Artificial intelligence (AI) has already proven to be a game-changer in many industries, including health care, finance, and transportation.

With the potential to automate routine tasks and provide real-time analysis, AI is quickly becoming an essential tool for businesses worldwide.

Words from White House:

The White House said on Tuesday it would ask workers how their employers use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor them, as it allocates federal investments in the technology, which is expected to change the nature of work.

The listening session and new measures come after a meeting President Joe Biden hosted this month with chief executives of top artificial intelligence companies, including Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google.

The initiative:

The White House will hold a listening session with workers to understand their experience with employers’ use of automated technologies for surveillance, monitoring and evaluation.

The call will include gig work experts, researchers, and policymakers.

As part of its evaluation of the technology, the administration will also announce new steps, including an updated roadmap for federal investments in AI research, a request for public input on AI risks and with a new report from the Department of Education on how AI affects teaching, learning and research.

Importance of this initiative:

Millions of users have tried AI apps and tools, which supporters say can make medical diagnoses, write screenplays, create legal briefs and debug software, leading to growing concern about how the technology could lead to privacy violations, skew employment decisions, and power scams and misinformation campaigns.

The meeting focused on the need for companies to be more transparent about their AI systems and the importance of evaluating the safety of such products.

President Biden has also used the technology and experimented with it, the White House has said.

Shortly after Biden announced his reelection bid, the Republican National Committee produced a video featuring a dystopian future during a second Biden term, which was built entirely with AI imagery.

Such political ads are expected to become more common as AI technology proliferates.

As per recent reports, Open AI chief executive officer Sam Altman this week appeared before the US lawmakers where he called for regulation of Artificial Intelligence while Google CEO Sundar Pichai believes AI will revolutionize all aspects of life and enhance certain jobs.