Executive Order Creates Big Brother AI

Uncle Sam's AI power grab will not end well. If it ever ends.

“With this Executive Order, the President directs the most sweeping actions ever taken to protect Americans from the potential risks of AI systems.” Hang on…

The same government that couldn’t protect us from the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by gain of function research that they funded (in China of all places), that killed seven million people worldwide, that disrupted our education and economic systems, is going to protect us from AI‘s theoretical dangers.

What could possibly go wrong?

Bias is Fairness!

Glad you asked. Here’s the first and most chilling mandate from the official White House fact sheet. It will…

Require that developers of the most powerful AI systems share their safety test results and other critical information with the U.S. government. In accordance with the Defense Production Act, the Order will require that companies developing any foundation model that poses a serious risk to national security, national economic security, or national public health and safety must notify the federal government when training the model, and must share the results of all red-team safety tests.

“Red-teams” are in-house programmers who attack an AI system to identify “vulnerabilities.”

Red teams guard against unauthorized users accessing the personal data AI collects (and sells). Red teams also conduct “fairness testing” to identify and mitigate “bias.”

According to Bard AI, “This can help to ensure that the AI system is not being used to spread disinformation that is targeted at specific groups of people.”

Well it would say that, wouldn’t it?

Anyone who’s asked Bard AI a question about a contentious issue (e.g., global warming or transgender athletes) knows the score: AI chatbots have a distinctly liberal bias (see: Chat GPT is a Social Justice Warrior).

The Biden Administration’’s Executive Order ensures that bias continues.

Censorship is Safety!

Under the new EO, AI companies must report “safety test results” and “other critical information” prior to going live.

Is adherence to the aforementioned liberal bias considered “critical information”? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Previously, on Who Loves Thought Control, the White House created a Disinformation Governance Board within the Department of Homeland Security. The same White House caught bullying social media to remove content and accounts it deemed dangerous.

Yesterday’s EO forces AI companies to open “red teams” to government supervision. It’s a thinly-disguised, entirely vague preemptory edict.

The Feds can enforce whatever red team rules it deems necessary to protect “national security, national economic security, or national public health.”

Yeah, about that…

The White House claims this authority under the Defense Production Act of 1950.

The DPA authorizes the federal government to compel private industry to provide materials necessary for national defense.

In 2003, after 9/11, the DPA was expanded to ensure the production of materials and services essential to Homeland security. We’re talking medical supplies and cybersecurity systems.

The new EO doesn’t direct AI companies to provide AI to the Department of Defense, for example. They’ve created an AI mandate that…

…protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more.

You heard right: the White House wants to make sure AI “advances equity.” How great is that? But wait! There’s more!

What, you ask? Don’t ask! Because they’re not going to tell you.

Regulation Creates Innovation!

The White House’s claim that the new EO “promotes innovation and competition” is a laughable assertion..

As I pointed out in Biden Launches AI Censorship for AI Cartel, federal regulations do the exact opposite. They create a barrier to entry. Bard AI sees the problem.

AI regulation could stifle innovation by making it more difficult for AI developers to experiment and develop new AI systems. This could slow down the pace of technological progress and prevent us from reaping the many benefits that AI has to offer.

Fair enough? And yet none of the “15 leading companies” that signed the Prez’s previous “voluntary commitments” on AI have said a word about the White House’s AI power grab.

More Government is Better Government!

The EO also mandates the establishment of a new AI Safety and Security Board within The Department of Homeland Security.

Hello? The DHS already has a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

So what’s the remit for this new DHS “Safety and Security Board”?

Whatever it is, it brings to mind Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote: "Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Freedom is Slavery!

Even without reading the fine print, Biden’s AI EO is a prima facia case of government over-reach.

Executive Orders can regulate areas of law where Congress hasn’t explicitly granted authority to the executive branch. Congress can shut that shit down legislatively.

Odds are they can’t, or won’t. So it’s up to the Supreme Court to rule whether or not the EO is beyond the bounds of the DPA. Assuming someone files a case against it. Same odds.

Bottom line

The federal government now has a stranglehold over a technology that was scary enough without their intervention.

But scarier with it. That’s without considering Uncle Sam’s First Amendment violation through editorial manipulation.

Once you remove the freedom to innovate, you consolidate power in the hands of the few. Which is the real reason this Executive Order exists.