On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” White House AI Czar and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said that the FTC can prevent the release of new AI/SI models if they find bad practices, and said that some agents have broken the rule of not harming humans.
Co-host Becky Quick asked, “Axios is reporting that the FTC has subpoenaed OpenAI and Anthropic and they’re looking into potential consumer protection violations. … Will the FTC vigorously enforce any potential wrongdoing that they find, and would it be something that would actually prevent the release of new models if the FTC investigation finds that there’s been some bad practices here?”
Clayton responded, “The short answer to your question, Becky, is yes, absolutely. We’ve heard from the American people. The American people want us to use our tools, our law enforcement tools, our regulatory tools to ensure their safety. If there are unfair practices that would fall under the FTC, if there are, frankly, violations of criminal law that would fall under the DOJ, we are going to enforce them vigorously. President Trump has instructed that they be enforced vigorously, and we think that’s what the American people want. And that is not at all inconsistent with leading. You have to lead and lead responsibly.”
Co-host Joe Kernen then asked, “I’m back to thinking about whether you can — you remember the three rules, the Isaac Asimov rules, the most important one was to never hurt a human. Is there a way of making that sort of in the actual DNA of AI, are there algorithms that could prevent some type of an evil force developing in AI and –?”
Quick cut in to ask, “And by the way, do you think that some of these agents have already violated that by encouraging someone to take their own life?”
Clayton answered, “Yes. Look, these are very important questions about control and monitoring. And in the U.S., given that set of laws that I talked about, given the accords, we are committed to control, monitoring to ensure that that does not happen. But I want to be clear with you guys on this, the U.S. … absolutely is the most responsible incubator for technology. We have to be aware of the risks that come from elsewhere, and those types of risks that you talked about are something we’re clear-eyed about, and it’s why, again, I go back to leading with the technology and being confident that we can address those risks from outside the United States in the best way possible.”
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