President Biden has signed a far-ranging executive order establishing guardrails for artificial intelligence. Companies are now required to report to the federal government on risks related to their AI systems should they fall into the hands of terrorists or be used for weapons of mass destruction. The order also attempts to mitigate the dangers of deepfakes that could be used to manipulate elections or defraud consumers. “Deepfakes use AI-generated audio and video to smear reputations, spread fake news and commit fraud,” Biden said as he signed the order at the White House.

“I’ve watched one of me,” Biden said, “referring to an experiment his staff showed him to make the point that a well-constructed artificial intelligence system could convincingly create a presidential statement that never happened — and thus touch off a political or national security crisis,” writes The New York Times.

The executive order demonstrates “that the United States, considered the leading power in fast-moving artificial intelligence technology, will also take the lead in its regulation,” notes NYT.

The European Union, China, Brazil and Israel have already drafted AI legislation, according to a global roundup in The Washington Post, which calls Biden’s new EO the “most expansive regulatory attempt yet” by the U.S., adding that the president is “wielding the force of agencies across the federal government and invoking broad emergency powers to harness the potential and tackle the risks of what he called the ‘most consequential technology of our time.’”

Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Britain this week, representing the U.S. at an AI Safety Summit hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The Guardian reports Elon Musk, notably absent from the United Nations AI Governance Board and White House AI meetups (though he did recently speak on the subject before Congress) will be participating in the UK summit.

A summary of the order reveals that it reiterates several points raised by prior White House edicts, including the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and voluntary commitments Biden secured from Big Tech in July.

“While businesses often chafe at new federal regulation,” NYT writes, “executives at companies like Microsoft, Google, OpenAI and Meta have all said that they fully expect the United States to regulate the technology — and some executives, surprisingly, have seemed a bit relieved.”

Related:
AI Regulation Is Needed to Support U.S. Workers in Future, Business Officials Say, Bloomberg, 10/31/23
Does Anyone Not Like Biden’s New Guidelines on AI?, Quartz, 11/1/23
Global Leaders Warn AI Could Cause ‘Catastrophic’ Harm, The New York Times, 11/1/23