WASHINGTON: The White House said on Friday that OpenAI and others in the artificial intelligence race have committed to making their technology safer with features such as watermarks on fabricated images.

The companies that came up with the assurance, besides OpenAI, included Amazon, Anth­ropic, Google, Infl­ection, Meta and Microsoft.

“These commitments, which the companies have chosen to undertake immediately, underscore three principles that must be fundamental to the future of AI — safety, security, and trust — and mark a critical step toward developing responsible AI,” the White House said in a release.

Worry that imagery or audio created by artificial intelligence will be used for fraud and misinformation has ramped up as the technology improves and the 2024 US presidential election gets closer.

Ways to tell when audio or imagery have been generated artificially are being sought to prevent peo­ple from being duped by fakes that look or sound real.

“They’re committing to setting up a broader regime towards making it easier for consumers to know whether content is AI-generated or not,” the White House official said.

“There is technical work to be done, but the point here is that it applies to audio and visual content, and it will be part of a broader system.”

The goal is for it to be easy for people to tell when online content is created by AI, the official added.

Commitments by the companies include independent testing of AI systems for risks when it comes to biosecurity, cybersecurity, or “societal effects”, according to the White House.

Common Sense Media commended the White House for its “commitment to establishing critical policies to regulate AI technology”, according to the review and ratings organisation’s chief executive Jam­es Steyer.

“That said, history would indicate that many tech companies do not actually walk the walk on a voluntary pledge to act responsibly and support strong regulations.” Biden is also working on an executive order intended to ensure that AI is safe and trustworthy, according to the White House official.

Watermarks for AI-generated content were among topics EU commissioner Thierry Breton discussed with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman during a visit to San Francisco last month.

“Looking forward to pursuing our discussions — notably on watermarking,” Breton wrote in a tweet that included a video snippet of him and Altman.

In the video clip Altman said he “would love to sh­ow” what OpenAI is do­ing with watermarks “very soon”.

The White House said it would also work with allies to establish an international framework to govern the development and use of AI.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2023