Regulators, researchers develop AI safeguards

Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are already being used to power voice assistants and self-driving cars, determine what users see on the internet, and guide drug design and chemical syntheses. But there are concerns about their ability to push disinformation, compromise cybersecurity, and engineer harmful biological materials. Governments around the world hope to mitigate those risks without quashing progress in the problems that AI seems poised to solve. A recent executive order by US president Joe Biden announced measures to make AI systems safer, such as requiring their developers to search for ways that bad actors could exploit the tools. Shortly after the order’s announcement , government and corporation representatives gathered in the UK for a summit on the risks of AI; 28 countries signed a declaration that supports continuing development of the technology but calls for more research into its potential risks. Many parts of the chemical enterprise