While President Biden took serious action against artificial intelligence this week, his concerns reportedly intensified after watching “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” according to the White House.
The president has discussed the need to take action against AI for some time as he and other world leaders look to control a potentially dangerous form of technology.
However, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed said Biden’s concerns only grew after he saw Tom Cruise’s latest spy thriller.
“If [Biden] hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about,” Reed told the Associated Press.
Biden’s executive order, signed on Monday, regulates the development of AI, as he says he wants to prevent it from making social media “more addictive” and from creating fraudulent materials.
During the signing event on Monday, he also noted that he’s seen “deep fake” videos of himself, something that has grown even more common in recent months thanks to the advancement of AI.
Reed said Biden saw the tech create “fake AI images of himself [and] of his dog.” He also saw it perform “the incredible and terrifying technology of voice cloning,” Reed added.
“[AI] can take three seconds of your voice and turn it into an entire fake conversation,” Reed said.
As for the movie, Reed shared that Biden watched the film while at Camp David following its July release.
The film centers around a dangerous AI device called “The Entity,” which tracks down Cruise’s character while it also hijacks and sinks a Russian submarine, impersonates human voices, and manipulates video of characters’ faces.
Reed said that Biden has been “profoundly curious about the technology” but that the features in the film have been a concern for the president.
The order signed on Monday will require AI developers to share safety results with the government; ease immigration barriers for those who are skilled in critical areas of AI, allowing them to study and stay in the U.S.; establish standards that prevent AI production of dangerous biological materials; and develop best practices that minimize the risk of AI displacing human workers.
“President Biden is rolling out the strongest set of actions any government in the world has ever taken on AI safety, security, and trust,” Reed said in a statement Monday morning. “It’s the next step in an aggressive strategy to do everything on all fronts to harness the benefits of AI and mitigate the risks.”