Melania Trump’s Warning About the AI Boom
First lady urges tech sector to be responsible and ‘watchful.’
Last month, Melania Trump announced the Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge to help spur new projects with the innovation. This week, the first lady sharpened her tone about the advancing technology, warning it is the responsibility of leaders and parents to treat AI “as we would our children—empowering, but with watchful guidance.”
In the East Room of the White House Thursday, Mrs. Trump hosted members of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education and private sector leaders that included Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, and David Sacks, White House AI and crypto czar. The heads of Google, IBM and OpenAI were also in attendance.
“The robots are here,” she said. “Our future is no longer science fiction.”
The first lady, however, urged meeting this “moment of wonder” with a level of restraint as the development of AI races ahead.
“It is our responsibility to prepare children in America,” she said, pointing out the surge of autonomous vehicles and the first generation of humanoids.
She challenged those listening to focus on three priorities of AI, which included infrastructure and energy, national security and talent.
“We must ensure America’s talent, our workforce, is prepared to sustain AI’s progress,” she said, taking the opportunity to promote the newly announced Presidential AI Challenge.
The gathering was the second meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education since President Trump signed an executive order on Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth on April 23.
Later in the evening, Mrs. Trump attended a dinner with the president held in the State Dining Room hosting technology leaders including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Even though Mrs. Trump predicted in her remarks earlier in the day that AI would represent “the single largest growth category in our nation during the Trump administration” and perhaps the “greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States,” it wasn’t the first time she’s weighed in on how technology should be responsibly used.
She recently marveled at her own use of AI technology for the audiobook of her memoir, Melania. As part of her Presidential AI Challenge, Mrs. Trump last month encouraged participation from students and educators to create innovative solutions to community problems through the “early training in the responsible use of AI tools,” according to the challenge’s website. And in May, the first lady sat alongside her husband as he signed the Take It Down Act into law, a cause she championed shortly after the president’s inauguration in January. The legislation, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, penalizes anyone who spreads images of someone without their consent and requires technology platforms to promptly remove the images once reported. The bill includes AI-generated deepfake images—also commonly referred to as sextortion and revenge porn.
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