Vice President Kamala Harris said that while artificial intelligence has the potential to do profound good, it also has the potential to cause profound harm, and that potential for harm includes actions by health insurance companies.
Ms. Harris spoke Nov. 1 in London at U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's AI Safety Summit. She said the international community must manage all dangers posed by AI, not just the so-called "existential threats" such as large-scale cyberattacks or AI-formulated bio-weapons.
"These threats, without question, are profound, and they demand global action," she said. "But let us be clear. There are additional threats that also demand our action — threats that are currently causing harm and which, to many people, also feel existential.
"Consider, for example: When a senior is kicked off his healthcare plan because of a faulty AI algorithm, is that not existential for him?"
The vice president's speech comes after the White House on Oct. 30 issued an executive order requesting the federal government's health agencies to devise a strategy for overseeing AI with provisions related to the healthcare sector. Under the order, HHS will be tasked with developing a safety initiative dedicated to gathering information on AI-related practices that are unsafe and pose potential harm.
Ms. Harris said in her speech that the White House is also establishing the U.S. AI Safety Institute, which will create "rigorous standards to test the safety of AI models for public use."