President Biden Signs AI Safety Executive Order After Seeing ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’

You weren’t alone in getting creeped out by the AI villain of this summer’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” President Joe Biden was freaked too.

After the president watched the movie (the latest in the long-running, Tom Cruise-led franchise), he grew deeply troubled, according to White House chief of staff Bruce Reed, who spoke to The Associated Press.

“If he hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about,” said Reed, who watched the film with the president.

On Monday, Biden signed an executive order on artificial intelligence, meant to “balance the needs of cutting-edge technology companies with national security and consumer rights, creating an early set of guardrails that could be fortified by legislation and global agreements” (according to the AP).

In “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team of spies face off against the most dangerous opponent yet, an AI dubbed the Entity by various intelligence networks. In the opening sequence of the movie, it sinks a Russian sub and all on board and orchestrates large scale mayhem throughout the rest of the movie, sometimes with the help of its human proxy Gabriel (Esai Morales). This is a threat so big that it’s spread across two movies, with the as-yet-untitled second film opening in summer 2025.

Reed told the AP: “He saw fake AI images of himself, of his dog. He saw how it can make bad poetry. And he’s seen and heard the incredible and terrifying technology of voice cloning, which can take three seconds of your voice and turn it into an entire fake conversation.”

The new order builds on previously established legislation with a truncated timeline. The guidance within the order is to be implemented and fulfilled over the range of 90 days to 365 days, meaning he’ll still have some time to wait for the next “Mission: Impossible” film even after the order is adopted in full.

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