Joe Biden’s Science Advisor Arati Prabhakar Requests AI Partnership With India

Today Arti Prabhakar, the Science Adviser to President Joe Biden, said the United States and like-minded countries such as India must collaborate to create the future of artificial intelligence.

The US administration has enlisted the help of numerous IT giants like Google and Microsoft to guarantee that it is not abused and is used for greater benefit.

In an interview with PTI, Indian-American Arati Prabhakar said, “The work that we are doing includes working with companies to hold them accountable and there’s some important progress on that today”.

She further said, “We’re also working on executive actions that we can take within existing law, and the President is considering an executive order that we think can really boost our ability to deal with AI’s harms and also start using it for good”.

Prabhakar stated, “That’s what we can do from the executive branch. We’ll also continue to work with Congress on bipartisan legislation as they start putting legislation forward. Then critically and underpinning all of this is the work that we’re doing globally with our international partners and allies, including with India”.

In response to a question, Arati Prabhakar said, “And that is because this is a global technology. It’s everywhere. Everyone is participating and it’s really affecting, it’s going to affect everyone’s lives and we want to make sure that like-minded countries work together to shape the course of AI”.

She stated that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was one of the major subjects of conversation when President Joe Biden met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington last month.

She went on to say, “I think that’s very much on the minds of our global leaders when they meet with President Biden. That’s what happened with Prime Minister Modi and many others”.

“I had the opportunity to be at Congress when the Prime Minister spoke and then at the State Dinner and then again at the luncheon that the Vice President and the Secretary of State hosted and artificial intelligence came up repeatedly in those conversations”, Prabhakar continued.

“In fact, when addressing Congress, the Prime Minister made a wonderful joke in which he stated that he thought Al stood for America, and India, which is another way of interpreting it. But I believe the theme of many of the conversations that have happened is exactly what you’re saying we’re going to have to link arms and be clear about how to achieve safe AI so all of our citizens can benefit from it”, Dr. Prabhakar noted.

Dr. Prabhakar, who spent half of her professional life in Silicon Valley and has a permanent residence in Palo Alto, said she felt the excitement in Silicon Valley about AI.

“What I would say is go build amazing applications for artificial intelligence because that is part of how we’re going to go forward and make sure while you’re doing it, to build AI that is safe and trustworthy so that it really does lift us up in the end”, Dr. Prabhakar pointed out.

President Biden highlighted voluntary commitments made by the administration with seven top AI companies on Friday.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and several of the smaller AI firms are among them. A number of IT companies, including some of the most prominent leaders in AI, have agreed to make some guarantees about safety, security, and trust.

“It is such an important step that we’ve been able to achieve by holding these companies accountable because it’s the first time that the industry has started to come together and take responsibility”, she added.

“Then we’ll work on what we need to do as an executive branch, which will include figuring out how to manage as AI facilitates voice cloning and fraud. Some of these effects begin to spread as cybercrime gets more prevalent. How do we mitigate those harms within the laws and regulations that we already have?” she stated.

The top American scientific official further stated, “And then how do we start using AI for public purposes? How do we use it to deal with the climate crisis that we’re confronting? How do we use it to improve health outcomes for everyone here in America and around the world? So we’re seeing both the bright and the dark side and we’re actively working on both pieces”.

She described AI as the most powerful technology of our time and said the president has made it clear that how it is utilized will reflect their ideals. But this is true all throughout the world.

Prabhakar went on to say, “We know every part of the world is trying to use AI to create a future that expresses their values. I think we can disagree about lots of things in this country and around the world, but the one thing I think we would all of us would agree on is that we don’t want to live in a future that’s driven by technology, that’s shaped by authoritarian regimes”.

“That’s is why I think it is so important for like-minded countries, for democratic countries to come together and make sure that we’re working together to use AI in ways that express our values”, Prabhakar added.

(With input from PTI)

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