White House: We're "clear-eyed" about weaponizing A.I.

Paying heed to the artificial intelligence researchers who have issued dire warnings about an inevitable A.I. arms race, a White House official on Tuesday said the U.S. Defense Department is taking a "clear-eyed" approach to using A.I. and machine learning. "We are looking through the DoD at how we can use A.I., machine inearning, to increase our defenses," White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said in an online chat regarding automation. He was joined by transportation entrepreneur and author Robin Chase, as well as author and futurist Martin Ford. At the same time, McDonough said, the administration is "also very clear-eyed in making sure there's appropriate human interaction in any kind of weaponization of any of this artificial intelligence." The U.S., he said, is aiming to be a world leader "in establishing a code of conduct and a set of understandings" in the field, "including, perhaps, arms through kinds of control arrangements or negotiations that take some of this stuff off the table."