President Biden shuffled away from a question about Chinese hackers after remarks on AI at the White House, sparking laughter across Twitter.
After quipping, "I’m the AI," and warning, "If any of you think I’m Abe Lincoln, blame it on the AI," Biden spoke about the future of artificial intelligence, noting that it "promises an enormous, enormous promise of both risk to our society and our economy and our national security, but also incredible opportunities." Among his calls for action, he demanded companies working with AI ensure they are "rooting out bias and discrimination."
After his speech, Biden wandered away from the podium mumbling, with his fists clenched.
One journalist asked, "Mr. President, can you tell us about the hacking of cabinet officials by China and the threshold of concern you have about that, sir?"
Biden ignored the question and asked his staff, "Ready? How we getting these guys down there?"
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Commentators across Twitter mocked Biden’s awkward exit.
"Bro has no idea what’s going on," GOP communicator Paxton Harmon wrote.
The Post Millennial editor Ari Hoffman tweeted that Biden got "’lost in his own museum.’"
"There's children to be sniffed and money to be collected," Townhall columnist Derek Hunter joked.
"All those aides and Secret Service, and the POTUS had to open the door for himself," radio host Ed Martin observed.
Author Matthew Betley referenced the 2004 comedy film "Dodgeball" and wrote, "If you can dodge a Chinese hacking question, you can dodge a ball," along with a GIF with a quote from the movie, "That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for him."
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A Beijing-linked group of hackers were able to hack into government email accounts due to a reported flaw in Microsoft's cloud-based security. The operation, which had first been disclosed last week, is believed to have compromised hundreds of thousands of U.S. government emails.
U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was among those hacked in the massive-scale cyber-espionage operation.
"The Department of State detected anomalous activity, took immediate steps to secure our systems, and will continue to closely monitor and quickly respond to any further activity," a State Department spokesperson said.
Microsoft reported earlier in July that a group of hackers in China identified as Storm-0558 had breached email accounts from approximately 25 organizations, including U.S. government agencies.
