On Oct. 30, the White House issued an executive order outlining the ways in which Artificial Intelligence could be safely developed and used. The executive order stated that “Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds both extraordinary potential for both promise and peril.”

The executive order is likely to have an impact on all organizations that use AI in some way and offers a very broad scope as to how it is expected to be implemented. 

David Silva, an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies, said he is glad to see the administration is directing attention to the potential issues AI introduces while also supporting the continued research and development of it. 

“There are a few areas where the executive order will have an immediate impact,” he said. “It directs the National Science Foundation to prioritize funding for AI-related education and directs the Secretary of Education to develop recommendations for teaching and learning with AI.”

Silva said the order could make funding available to some of the university’s programs that integrate AI into learning.

President Joe Biden uses a very broad definition of AI within the executive order, which could cause some finer details to be missed regarding its usage, said Cristin Compton, an associate professor in the School of Communication Studies. 

She said although Biden is trying to think through the consequences of AI usage before we go too far, this order could cause regulations to be incorporated on certain technologies that don’t fall under typical AI usage. 

“What we largely consider AI to be are technologies like ChatGPT and Google Bard, which are essentially really large language models,” Compton said, “and these language models can present a lot of bias. The president talks in the executive order about AI being made to avoid bias, but humans created AI and we’re very biased individuals.”

She said she thinks while AI will never be free from bias, it will be able to be used to help create opportunities for education among students and open new learning opportunities for them.

“I would say that based on the executive order, the National Science Foundation is going to be tasked with creating opportunities and best practices for college students with AI usage in mind,” Compton said. “There’ll probably be some funding opportunities involved also. However, what I’m waiting for is to see how this is going to be interpreted and then applied because it’s so broad.”

Molly Hoffer is digital tech. Contact her at [email protected].