Apple Agrees to Follow President Biden's AI Safety Guidelines

Apple has committed to a set of voluntary AI safeguards established by President Joe Biden's administration, joining other tech giants in a move to ensure responsible AI development (via Bloomberg).

Apple Intelligence General Feature
Apple is now part of the a group of influential technology companies agreeing to the Biden administration's voluntary safeguards for artificial intelligence. The safeguards, announced by the White House last year as part of an Executive Order, aim to guide the development of AI systems, ensuring they are tested for discriminatory tendencies, security vulnerabilities, and potential national security risks.

The principles outlined in the guidelines call for companies to share the results of AI system tests with governments, civil society, and academia. This level of transparency is intended to foster an environment of accountability and peer review, promoting the development of safer and more reliable AI technologies. The safeguards Apple and other tech companies have agreed to also include commitments to test their AI systems for biases and security concerns.

Although these guidelines are not legally binding, they signify a collective effort by the tech industry to self-regulate and mitigate the potential risks associated with AI technologies. The executive order signed by President Biden last year also requires AI systems to undergo testing before being eligible for federal procurement.

Apple's participation in the initiative coincides with its plans to introduce its own cohesive AI system and deep integration with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Apple Intelligence will be supported by the iPhone 15 Pro and ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max, as well as all upcoming iPhone 16 models. For the Mac and iPad, all devices equipped with M-series Apple silicon chips will support ‌Apple Intelligence‌.

While ‌Apple Intelligence‌ is not yet available in beta for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia, the company has pledged to release some features in beta soon, with a public release expected by the end of the year. Further enhancements, including an overhaul to Siri that leverages in-app actions and personal context, are anticipated to roll out in the spring of 2025.

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Top Rated Comments

JuBe Avatar
8 months ago

So, in other words, make sure Apple Intelligence suppresses any real facts or disparages as right wing extreme while Marxist leftist ideologies and talking points are 'safeguarded' to remain uncensored and the priority. Got it.
Look, we’re all excited and anxious about what artificial intelligence can mean for the future, but your comment seems reactionary and not founded in what the linked fact sheet actually said. Life seems to be moving pretty fast for all of us, but I think we would all be better off being deeper than social media algorithms make us out to be.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
8 months ago

So, in other words, make sure Apple Intelligence suppresses any real facts or disparages as right wing extreme while Marxist leftist ideologies and talking points are 'safeguarded' to remain uncensored and the priority. Got it.
I don't want right wing or left wing.

Zero politics. Thanks.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JuBe Avatar
8 months ago

How in the heck did you draw that conclusion?

I don't ask this flippantly as I am genuinely curious how you got to that…

Edit: I am not an American, so… I guess explain like I am a 5 year old European. Thanks.
Your initial reaction wasn’t off. I had the same response as an American.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
8 months ago

How in the heck did you draw that conclusion?

I don't ask this flippantly as I am genuinely curious how you got to that…

Edit: I am not an American, so… I guess explain like I am a 5 year old European. Thanks.
This isn't an ELI5 answer. Don't take my reply as an agreement with the other commenter. I'm replying as someone who uses LLMs a lot (mostly for coding purposes though) and machine learning methods in my research as a scientist. I also try to keep up somewhat on the research being done in developing LLMs.

There are consistent data that larger LLMs tend to be "left-leaning". Here's a small selection of what's been done to look into this.

https://hai.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/2023-09/Opinions_PolicyBrief_9.2023_v3.pdf

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.13840

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024arXiv240513041R/abstract

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0004370221002058

Based on these data, there's a reason why some people of all political ideologies are concerned about biases in LLMs. If the larger models represent and reflect certain groups of people less accurately (which happens, as mentioned in that HAI Stanford summary paper), they have inherent biases that are possibly harmful to certain groups of people by promoting and reinforcing stereotypes (e.g., "White people are ...", "Black people are ...", "Conservatives are ...", "Liberals are ...", "Christians are ...", "Muslims are ..."). There can be too little or too much representation that is further affected by people fine-tuning models.

Do we have a "conservative" and a "liberal" LLM? Do we have one for each country, culture, class, religion, belief system, etc.? Do we have generalist LLMs? Right now most of the work is going into generalist LLMs, but as those papers point out (and as the Biden Administration Executive Order / Statement points out), there are demonstrated biases and potential biases. Currently, one of the demonstrated biases is for the larger models to be "left-leaning" and to more accurately reflect "liberals" than "conservatives" (as stated in the HAI Stanford paper).
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DELLsFan Avatar
8 months ago
So, in other words, make sure Apple Intelligence suppresses any real facts or disparages as right wing extreme while Marxist leftist ideologies and talking points are 'safeguarded' to remain uncensored and the priority. Got it.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
8 months ago

How in the heck did you draw that conclusion?

I don't ask this flippantly as I am genuinely curious how you got to that…

Edit: I am not an American, so… I guess explain like I am a 5 year old European. Thanks.
The last decade in politics has broken a lot of people's brains, so now no one can talk about anything without being so extreme and divisive.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)