The Biden administration is voluntarily stepping on the proverbial landmine that is the ongoing debate about just how to utilize the most powerful artificial intelligence programs and whether the best option is open or closed-source software.
On Wednesday, the White House said it is seeking public opinion on the pros and cons of having AI's signature systems open to the public for anyone to use and modify.
This inquiry is but one piece of a broader executive order that President Joe Biden signed back in October to manage the fast-growing technological breakthrough before a worst-case scenario manifests.
The Division That Is AI
Many of the biggest purveyors in AI are divided on just how "open" they believe AI models should be while emphasizing the dangers of such unlimited accessibility to AI components, while others are stressing the importance of open systems to researchers and startups.
Meta Platforms and IBM are among the most vocal proponents of the open approach. The executive order issued by Biden gives open models the clunky moniker "dual-use foundation models with widely available weights" in stating that such systems need further study.
Weights are numerical values that govern how AI models perform. When said weights are made publicly available on the internet, states the order, there can be substantial benefits to innovation but also substantial risks, such as the removal of safeguards within the model.
The order gives Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo until July to garner the opinions of leading experts before coming up with recommendations to manage potential benefits and risks.
The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration says it will also open a 30-day comment period to vet ideas that will be added to a report to the president.
"One piece of encouraging news is that it's clear to the experts that this is not a binary issue. There are gradients of openness," said Alan Davidson, an assistant Commerce secretary and the NTIA's administrator.
Davidson told reporters Tuesday that it's possible to find solutions that promote both innovation and safety.
Meta's Plans
Meta says it plans to share information they have learned from building AI technologies in an open way over the last 10 years to share the benefits of open AI with everyone.
"What we've learned from building AI technologies in an open way over the last decade so that the benefits of AI can continue to be shared by everyone," said a written statement from Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs.
