Former President Barack Obama has been working behind the scenes to shape the White House's approach to artificial intelligence for months, both offices confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Friday.
Working alongside President Joe Biden, the pair's efforts came to fruition on Monday when the president signed an executive order that establishes government oversight of AI development.
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In 2022, Obama noticed the large breakthroughs in AI tools and discussed the questions around AI and machine learning with Biden who urged him to consult with the administration in moving policy forward.
In June, the president called in his former boss to help create a key order for the first time, speaking on the phone about their goals and meeting again for lunch later in the month. At the request of Biden, Obama joined several conversations with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan regarding new governmental regulations.
Biden and Obama collaborated with Vice President Kamala Harris and other senior White House advisers worked together over the summer to build a substantive framework. In the following months, Biden secured agreements set by the White House from 15 leading companies.
Obama reached out to government and industry leaders, as well as leaders in the advocacy space, to address issues beyond national security — highlighting the need to maintain information integrity and reduce discrimination and bias, according to a senior official from Obama’s office. He played a key role in implementing the agreement between the government and Al companies to encourage testing new AI models before they were released.
Obama discussed how Congress should approach AI with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has hosted a number of AI insight forums to examine the opportunities and risks of the fast-growing technology.
“In the past, governments haven’t always adapted well to this kind of transformational change, but we have an opportunity to get this right,” Obama said in a Monday press release, praising the executive order. “That’s why I’m glad to see the Biden administration acting with a sense of urgency - securing voluntary commitments from leading companies, and now signing an executive order designed to encourage innovation while avoiding some of the biggest risks. Congress should follow President Biden’s lead and look to his executive order for opportunities to fund this work”
The White House broke down key components of the order this week, which include protecting consumer privacy, creating new security standards, international approaches to safety, and civil rights matters.
Biden called the executive order "the most significant action any government anywhere in the world has ever taken on AI safety, security and trust."
“If we want America to continue to lead, we need to keep pushing new technology forward,” Obama said. “But we also need democratic values — from freedom of speech to the rule of law — that make innovation possible. That’s why anyone working to harness the power of these new tools has to make a choice: ignore potential problems until it’s too late, or proactively address them in a way that unlocks the enormous benefits of breakthrough technology while also strengthening democracy.”
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Throughout the process, Biden and Obama were united in demanding immediate attention be given to the matter.
“You have to move fast here, not at normal government pace or normal private-sector pace, because the technology is moving so fast,” Zients described Biden saying, according to NBC News, who reported Obama's involvement. “We have to move as fast, or ideally faster. And we need to pull every lever we can.”