Commerce Seeking Input on Risks of 'Open-Weight' AI Models
The Commerce Department will soon request public comments on the risks, benefits and potential policy actions it should take to address advanced artificial intelligence models with widely available model weights, including how they may affect U.S. national security. The agency said “open-weight models” could make AI tools more available to small companies, researchers, nonprofits and others, which would “accelerate the diffusion of AI’s benefits” but also “increase the scale and likelihood of harms from advanced models.”
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The agency said model weights govern how AI models behave, and if a person has access to a model’s weights, they don't need to "train the model from scratch. Additionally, that person can more easily fine-tune the model or adapt it towards different goals, unlocking new innovations but also potentially removing safeguards."
Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration will request feedback on the benefits and risks of making model weights widely available; the innovation, competition, safety, security, trustworthiness, equity and national security concerns with making AI model weights more or less open; the role the U.S. government should play in “restricting the availability of AI model weights”; and more. Comments will be due 30 days after NTIA publishes the request for comment in the Federal Register.
The effort is part of President Joe Biden’s October AI executive order, which directed NTIA to “review the risks and benefits” of certain large AI models and develop policy recommendations, among other things (see 2310300029).