Biden Makes Surprise Visit to White House AI Meeting Attended by Big Tech CEOs

Meeting Between Vice President Harris, Key White House Officials, and AI Company CEOs

U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise appearance at a White House artificial intelligence (AI) strategy meeting attended by CEOs of big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft.

On the 4th (local time), the White House announced that President Biden briefly stopped by the AI meeting held under the chairmanship of Vice President Kamala Harris with AI industry CEOs. This symbolically demonstrated how seriously the Biden administration is taking the potential and underlying risks of emerging AI technologies.

In April 2021, early in his presidency, when the semiconductor supply chain was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden made a surprise visit to a semiconductor strategy meeting attended by CEOs including Samsung Electronics, emphasizing the need for aggressive investment.

This later led to policies such as the semiconductor law, aimed at countering China in core technologies and encouraging aggressive investment incentives for U.S. industries.

The meeting was convened amid discussions on government-level safety measures including AI ethics following the emergence of ChatGPT. Four industry-leading CEOs attended the event: Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google; Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft; Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT; and one other industry representative CEO. From the White House, Vice President Harris, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and National Economic Council (NEC) Chair Lael Brainard participated.

Vice President Harris stated in a press release, "The private sector conveyed their stance that they bear ethical, moral, and legal responsibilities for the safety and security of their products." The White House also announced plans to invest $140 million through the National Science Foundation for new AI research. Leading companies including Google, Nvidia, and OpenAI will also participate in evaluating their AI systems.