May 7, 2023

May 7, 2023 Biden and Harris met with executives from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic on Thursday. The four tech companies attending Thursday’s White House meeting on artificial intelligence with Vice President Kamala Harris failed to share with the public the issue, which Harris said could “aggravate security threats, violate civil rights and privacy, and undermine public trust and faith in democracy.” - Advertisement - Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI declined to answer Fox News Digital’s detailed questions about the outcome of the meeting or how high-level political interest in AI could influence how they develop this new capability months and years ago. Google did not respond to a request or follow-up questions about what the tech giant learned at the meeting and its view of how the White House is handling AI. - Advertisement - A Microsoft spokesperson responded to Fox News Digital saying “Microsoft has nothing to share” and did not respond to a later request for a written statement. OpenAI told Fox News Digital in response to questions about the interview and conclusions about the White House strategy, “We don’t have anything else to add, so we decline.” - Advertisement - Anthropic, a startup created by former OpenAI members that is working on its own chatbot similar to the latter’s ChatGPT, did not answer specific questions from Fox News Digital after the meeting and provided one proposal following the meeting. “It was an honor for us to meet today with Vice President Kamala Harris and other Cabinet members, and look forward to continuing the conversation on how to build and deploy safer and more reliable AI systems,” the company said in a statement. Anthropic declined to be interviewed. The absence of any significant announcements from the companies left only the White House statement as a guide to how AI experts, Harris and some tech experts from the Biden administration approached the meeting. In a report sent Thursday, the White House said President Biden made a surprise appearance “to emphasize that companies have the primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of their products before they are deployed or made public.” “The meeting also included a frank and constructive discussion on three key areas: the need for companies to be more transparent to politicians, the public and others about their AI systems; the importance of being able to evaluate, verify and validate the safety, security and effectiveness of AI systems, and the need to secure AI systems from intruders and attacks,” the statement said. While still vague, this is more detail than the executives provided. Google CEO Sundar Pitchai told reporters “yes” when asked if the meeting was productive after he left the White House on Thursday afternoon. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ignored the questions.