Kamala Harris Voices Support For AI Innovation, Regulation: 'AI Has The Potential To Do Profound Good'

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the U.K. AI Safety Summit Wednesday as the representative of the U.S. government. Comments from Harris come after President Joe Biden recently announced an executive order on artificial intelligence.

What Happened: Harris, who recently announced the AI Safety Institute, shared the U.S. government’s thoughts on utilizing artificial intelligence innovation for good and being aware of potentially harmful events.

In her speech, Harris said all leaders in the artificial intelligence sector have a "moral, ethical and societal responsibility" to ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits.

"AI has the potential to do profound good," Harris said.

The vice president said AI has the potential to create new medicines, cure diseases, dramatically improve agricultural production and save countless lives in the fight against climate crisis.

"Just as AI has the potential to do profound good, it also has the potential to cause profound harm."

Harris warned that artificial intelligence could also be used in cyber attacks, bioweapons and other "existential threats."

"They demand global action."

Harris added that it's important to make a collective vison of what the future of artificial intelligence will be, while providing equal access to opportunity and making the world safer.

"I believe history will show that this was the moment."

Harris announced steps the U.S. was taking to address the rise of artificial intelligence, which include the AI Safety Institute, an AI Bill of Rights and a commitment to responsible AI use by militaries.

The vice president said 30 countries have joined the U.S. in the commitment to responsible AI use for the military and called on more countries to join.

Harris also shared that 10 top philanthropies have committed to join the U.S. in protecting workers’ rights, driving AI innovation and helping to build international rules and norms for responsible AI use with a $200 million initial commitment.

The vice president said legislation must be passed that "strengthens AI safety without stifling innovation.

"We must do so swiftly as this technology rapidly advances."

Harris said the benefits of artificial intelligence are immense.

"This is a moment of profound opportunity. Let us seize this moment."

What's Next: The global AI Safety Summit is hosted in the U.K. by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. Sunak shared more on the vision of the event in a post on Twitter, now known as X.

"Here's what we hope to achieve: Agree on the risks of AI, to inform how we manage them, discuss how we can collaborate better internationally, look at how safe AI can be used for good globally," Sunak tweeted.

The prime minister said day one of the event will lay out the vision and day two will see world representatives and business leaders drive the conversation forward.

"We'll be discussing what the next five years looks like for AI, and the action we'll need to take to ensure it's developed safely, both in the short term and long term."

Elon Musk is among the key people expected to attend the event. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Inc TSLA, Musk also launched artificial intelligence company xAI and was an early investor in OpenAI. Musk has also shared warnings about the harmful impact of artificial intelligence.

"AI safety is vital to the future of civilization," Musk tweeted Wednesday.

Sunak and Musk will share a conversation after the AI Safety Summit Thursday night on Twitter.

Other key figures expected to attend the event include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Palantir Technologies PLTR CEO Alex Karp, Nvidia Corp NVDA CEO Jensen Huang and executives from Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL, Meta Platforms Inc META, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Anthropic, IBM IBM and Samsung according to CNBC

Photos: Shutterstock

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