Apple agrees to adopt AI safeguards – following in the footsteps of tech rivals

Apple said Friday it will voluntarily adopt artificial intelligence safeguards — joining other tech giants including OpenAI, Amazon, Google Alphabet and Meta — in line with the Biden administration's guidelines aimed at minimizing national security risk.

In July 2023, the Biden administration announced that it had secured voluntary commitments from seven leading AI companies, which pledged to "help move toward safe, secure, and transparent development" of the technology.

Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI were the first seven companies to sign on to the administration's initiative.

Companies are required to transparently share the results of tests that measure compliance with safety and anti-discrimination rules.

Apple joined their tech rivals after announcing last month that it would incorporate AI features into its signature products, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The Cupertino, California-based colossus announced a new set of free software updates called "Apple Intelligence" in a bid to catch up with other Silicon Valley rivals such as Microsoft and Google, which have been leaps and bounds ahead of the pack. in the AI ​​arms race.

At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference last month, Apple said it will rely on OpenAI's ChatGPT to make its Siri virtual assistant smarter and more useful.

The optional Siri port in ChatGPT will be free for all iPhone users and will be made available on other Apple products once the option is rolled out to the next generation of Apple operating systems.

ChatGPT subscribers are supposed to be able to easily sync their existing accounts when using an iPhone and should get more advanced features than free users.

The full suite of Apple's upcoming features will only work on the latest iPhone, iPad and Mac models because the devices require advanced processors.

For example, consumers will need last year's iPhone 15 Pro or buy the next model coming out later this year to take full advantage of Apple's AI suite, though all the tools will work on Macs that date from 2020 after that computer's next operating system is installed. .

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology has fueled a debate among technology watchers over the potential dangers it could pose to the economy, national security and even the survival of the human race.

Last month, a group of AI whistleblowers claimed that Google and OpenAI were putting humanity at risk as they rushed to develop new technology.

Signed by current and former employees of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic, the open letter warned that "AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight" and cited a lack of federal regulations for the development of advanced AI.

"Companies are racing to develop and deploy increasingly powerful artificial intelligence, ignoring the risks and impact of AI," former OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlo, one of the paper's co-authors, said in a statement.

"I decided to leave OpenAI because I lost hope that they would act responsibly, especially as they pursue general artificial intelligence."

Government and private-sector researchers worry that US adversaries could use the models, which mine vast amounts of text and images to digest information and generate content, launch aggressive cyber attacks or even create powerful biological weapons. .

By postal wire