Apple signs Joe Biden’s pledge

Apple signed on to the Biden administration’s voluntary pledge for artificial intelligence companies on July 26.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harrisfirst announced that they secured commitments from seven major AI developers — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI — a year ago in what the administration says laid the groundwork for its executive order on AI adopted in October. The voluntary commitments included safety testing, information sharing on safety risks (with government, academia, and civil society groups), cybersecurity investments, watermarking systems AI-generated content, and a general agreement to “develop and deploy advanced AI systems to help address society’s greatest challenges.”

Until now, Apple wasn’t on the list. Now, as Apple prepares to release new AI-enabled iPhones (powered by OpenAI’s systems as well as its own), the Cupertino-based tech giant is playing nice with the Biden administration, signaling that they’ll be a responsible actor, even without formal legislation on the books.