Apple agrees to adopt AI safeguards — following in footsteps of tech rivals
Apple on Friday said it will voluntarily adopt safeguards for artificial intelligence — joining other tech giants including OpenAI, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Meta in complying with Biden administration guidelines aimed at minimizing national security risk.
In July 2023, the Biden administration announced that it had secured voluntary commitments from seven leading AI companies who pledged “to help move toward safe, secure, and transparent” development of the technology.
Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI were the first seven companies to sign on to the administration’s initiative.
The companies are asked to transparently share results of tests that measure compliance with security and anti-discrimination regulations.
Apple joined their tech rivals after announcing last month that it would be incorporating AI features into its signature products including iPhone, iPad and Mac.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based colossus announced a fresh set of free software updates dubbed “Apple Intelligence” in an effort to catch up with other Silicon Valley rivals, such as Microsoft and Google, that have moved ahead of the pack by leaps and bounds in the AI arms race.
At its annual World Wide Developers Conference last month, Apple said it would rely on OpenAI’s ChatGPT to make its virtual assistant Siri smarter and more helpful.
Siri’s optional gateway to ChatGPT will be free to all iPhone users and made available on other Apple products once the option is baked into the next generation of Apple’s operating systems.
ChatGPT subscribers are supposed to be able to easily sync their existing accounts when using the iPhone, and should get more advanced features than free users would.
Apple’s full suite of upcoming features will only work on more recent models of the iPhone, iPad and Mac because the devices require advanced processors.
For instance, consumers will need last year’s iPhone 15 Pro or buy the next model coming out later this year to take full advantage of Apple’s AI package, although all the tools will work on Macs dating back to 2020 after that computer’s next operating system is installed.
The rapid advancement of AI technology has prompted debate among tech observers over possible risks posed to the economy, national security and even the survival of the human race.
Last month, a group of AI whistleblowers claimed that Google and OpenAI were endangering humanity as they sprinted to develop the new technology.
Signed by current and former employees of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic, the open letter cautioned that “AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight” and cited a lack of federal rules on developing advanced AI.
“Companies are racing to develop and deploy ever more powerful artificial intelligence, disregarding the risks and impact of AI,” former OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlo, one of the letter’s organizers, said in a statement.
“I decided to leave OpenAI because I lost hope that they would act responsibly, particularly as they pursue artificial general intelligence.”
Government and private sector researchers worry US adversaries could use the models, which mine vast amounts of text and images to summarize information and generate content, to wage aggressive cyber attacks or even create potent biological weapons.
With Post Wires
