Top AI business leaders meet with Biden administration to discuss the emerging industry’s needs
WASHINGTON — Top Biden administration officials discussed the future of artificial intelligence during a meeting with a group of executives from OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft and other companies on Thursday. The focus was on building data centers in the United States and the infrastructure needed to develop the technology.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily briefing that the meeting focused on expanding public-private partnerships and the industry’s needs for staffing and permitting. Computing power for the industry will likely depend on reliable access to electricity, so utilities Exelon and AES also attended the meeting to discuss grid needs.
The rise of AI brings with it a mix of promise and danger: the automatically generated text, images, audio and video can help boost economic productivity, but it also has the potential to displace some workers. It can also serve as both a national security tool and a threat to guard against.
President Joe Biden signed a bill last October executive order to address technology developmentattempting to create protection through measures such as watermarking of AI content and addressing consumer rights issues.
Attending the meeting on behalf of the administration were White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Among the companies in attendance were Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat, Meta Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, and Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith.
Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon subsidiary AWS, was also in attendance. The company said in a statement that attendees discussed modernizing the nation’s electric grid, accelerating permitting for new projects and ensuring that carbon-free energy projects are integrated into the grid.