Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your blockchain and artificial intelligence technology questions are answered! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question, comes from Lynn in Florida and she wants to know if the White House created an artificial intelligence safety and security board?
Lynn, you came to the right place. The answer is yes, the White House did establish an artificial intelligence safety and security board. Let’s spend the next three minutes examining this situation, including the who, what, why. We begin with a bit of background.
Last October, President Biden issued an executive order (14110) which directed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish an advisory board that would support the development and management of AI technologies responsibly. Note, establishing advising boards in Washington is common to the point where there are extensive federal regulations that must be followed, including public notices. The executive order directed the DHS Secretary to establish the advisory board within 180 days. DHS made it under the wire Batman! On to the purpose of the Board.
The purpose includes, but is not limited to, information about emergent risks, threat mitigation guidance, and guardrails for critical infrastructure owners’ and operators’ use of AI, says the Federal Register notice posted on April 29th. The notice also says, the Board will provide DHS information, advice, and recommendations to advance the security and resilience of our nation’s critical infrastructure in its use of artificial intelligence. Interestingly, the Board has been exempted from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, “…in recognition of the sensitive nature of the subject matter involved.” Holy government secrets Batman! A word about the Board organization.
Although up to 35 members are permitted, DHS elected to appoint only 22 members. The Board will meet quarterly. Senior Advisor to the President for Science and Technology, Arati Prabhakar, will function as principal staff. Although no mention of where the Board will meet, mostly likely and logical, is DHS headquarters.
Who are the 22 Board members?
- Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI;
- Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder, Anthropic;
- Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines;
- Rumman Chowdhury, Ph.D., CEO, Humane Intelligence;
- Alexandra Reeve Givens, President and CEO, Center for Democracy and Technology
- Bruce Harrell, Mayor of Seattle, Washington; Chair, Technology and Innovation Committee, United States Conference of Mayors;
- Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law;
- Vicki Hollub, President and CEO, Occidental Petroleum;
- Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA;
- Arvind Krishna, Chair and CEO, IBM;
- Fei-Fei Li, Ph.D., co-director, Stanford Human-centered Artificial Intelligence Institute;
- Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland;
- Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft;
- Shantanu Narayen, Chair and CEO, Adobe;
- Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet;
- Arati Prabhakar, Ph.D., Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; and Director, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy;
- Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco; and Chair, Business Roundtable;
- Adam Selipsky, CEO, Amazon Web Services;
- Lisa Su, Chair and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD);
- Nicol Turner Lee, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution;
- Kathy Warden, Chair, CEO and President, Northrop Grumman; and
- Maya Wiley, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Do you see is the intermingling of government and corporate America? For what purpose, you decide. I guess we won’t know because the meetings are secret.
Time to go, but first a proverb from Portugal: To a person who understands half a word is enough.
Until next time,
Yogi Nelson
Blockchain & AI Forum 