U.S. President Joe Biden urges APEC members to ensure AI brings change for better

U.S. President Joe Biden urged Asia-Pacific economies to work together to ensure that AI brings change for the better, not to abuse workers or limit potential.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday urged Asia-Pacific economies to work together to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) brings change for the better, and not to abuse workers or limit potential.

Addressing the final session of a two-day summit of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco, Biden said he had briefly discussed AI with Chinese President Xi Jinping in talks on the sidelines of APEC on Wednesday.

Biden has used the two-day APEC summit to highlight the strong U.S. economy and its ties to other Pacific nations, even as his vision for greater regional cooperation to counter China's influence stumbled on the trade front over his bid to strengthen workers' rights.

"We're going to see more technological change in the next 10 years than we've seen the last 50 years," Biden said, as Xi looked on a few places to his left at a circular conference table. "Together we have to make sure it changes for the better."

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Biden said digital technologies like AI must be used to "uplift, not limit, the potential of our people," and noted that the United States had brought together leading AI companies in the summer to agree voluntary commitments "to keep AI systems safe and trustworthy."

The steps, he said, included committing to ensuring the security of AI systems before releasing them to the public, watermarking AI-generated content to show it has been generated by artificial intelligence and minimising the risk AI systems posed to society, such as by promoting bias or discrimination.