US announces measures to address risk of artificial intelligence arms race

The White House has announced measures to address the risks of an artificial intelligence arms race, as the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, met chief executives at the forefront of the industry's rapid advances. In a statement released as Harris prepared to meet the leaders of ChatGPT, Google and Microsoft, the US government said firms developing the technology had a "fundamental responsibility to make sure their products are safe before they are deployed or made public". Concerns are mounting that if AI is allowed to develop unchecked, its application by private companies could threaten jobs, increase the risk of fraud and infringe data privacy. The US government said on Thursday it would invest $140m (£111m) in seven new National AI Research Institutes, to pursue AI advances that are "ethical, trustworthy, responsible, and serve the public good". AI development is dominated by the private sector, with the tech industry producing 32 significant machine-learning models last year, compared with three produced by academia.