- President Biden was influenced by the movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which portrays the dangers of rogue AI.
- Biden signed an executive order on AI to ensure its development is safe and reliable for the public.
- AI can have both positive and negative impacts, and Biden aims to address issues, including false image creation, perpetuating inequalities, and enabling scams.
A recent report about President Joe Biden’s signed order on artificial intelligence highlighted that the movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, starring Tom Cruise, had a significant impact on his concerns regarding AI. White House chief of staff Bruce Reed stated in an interview that President Biden was “as impressed and alarmed as anyone” after witnessing the technology’s capabilities, including fake AI images, bad poetry generation, and voice cloning.
Biden’s concern over AI was further influenced after he watched Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One during a weekend at Camp David. The film featured a rogue AI, known as “the Entity,” as the primary antagonist. Bruce Reed commented, “If he hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about.”
On Monday, President Biden signed an executive order intended to ensure that AI is reliable and helpful without putting the public at risk. Prior to signing, he noted that AI is changing things at “warp speed” and emphasized the need to govern the technology effectively.
The president urged his staff to move swiftly in creating the order, stressing the need to act faster than the development of the technology itself. He cited the government’s failure to promptly address social media concerns and resulting mental health issues among young people in the US as an example.
While AI has the potential to accelerate cancer research, monitor climate change, boost economic output, and improve government services, it also carries risks such as creating false images, perpetuating racial and social inequalities, and being utilized by scammers and criminals. Alexandra Reeves Givens, a digital rights advocate and president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the Biden administration is “stepping up to use the levers it can control.”
With the next Mission: Impossible movie scheduled for release on May 23, 2025, President Biden will need to act fast to address the concerns surrounding AI.