Two weeks ago, US lawmakers and some key leaders from major tech companies met in Wahington to discuss the regulation of artificial intelligence at the AI Insight Forum.
• Musk calls AI a “double-edged sword”
• Agreement on the need for government regulation
• Further meetings expected
Top executives from some of the biggest tech heavyweights, including Tesla boss Elon MuskGoogle boss Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as well as founders Bill Gates and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, recently met in a closed meeting with US lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss artificial intelligence regulation. The Senate’s “AI Insight Forum” took place on September 13th and was attended by a total of 22 tech leaders.
Musk calls for “referee” for artificial intelligence
Tesla boss Elon Musk explained that a regulator is needed to ensure the safe use of artificial intelligence. “It’s important for us to have a referee,” Musk told reporters, drawing a comparison to sports. According to Musk, a regulator would ensure “that companies take actions that are safe and in the public interest.” Musk confirmed that he had called AI “a double-edged sword” during the forum. He also told reporters that there was an “overwhelming consensus” that there should be regulation for artificial intelligence. The Tesla boss described the meeting as a “service to humanity” and said it “could go down in history as very important for the future of civilization.”
Back in March of this year, the non-profit organization Future of Life warned about the risks of AI in a published open letter and called for a six-month pause in the development of more powerful systems than OpenAI’s GPT-4. The letter was signed by numerous supporters, including Musk.
More voices on AI regulation
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Congress “should look at AI to help innovate and protect,” according to Reuters. This is an emerging technology, there are important stocks to balance here, and the government is ultimately responsible for that. In his opinion, “it is better that the standard is set by American companies that can work with our government to shape these models on important issues.” He advocated for open source AI: “Open source democratizes access to these tools, and that helps level the playing field and promote innovation for people and companies,” Cointelegraph quoted Zuckerberg as saying.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that artificial intelligence can help solve big problems. He believes the government needs to balance the “innovation side and building the right protective measures.” “Over time, AI will be the biggest technological change we experience in our lifetime. It is bigger than the shift from desktop to mobile and potentially bigger than the Internet itself,” said Pichai.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has raised concerns about security risks and advocated for government and the private sector to work together to minimize them. “AI’s potential is limitless – but we will only realize that potential if government, private sector and civil society work together to maximize the technology’s benefits and minimize its risks,” Gates wrote on X a day after the forum.
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, called the meeting “kind of an important, urgent and in some ways unprecedented moment” and stated: “I think this will be a tool that will empower humanity on a scale that we can’t even imagine.” He believes policymakers wanted to “do the right thing” and was impressed by the speed with which the government wanted to create rules around the technology.
Legislators: Agreement on the need for state regulation
As Reuters reports, more than 60 senators took part in the “AI Insight Forum”. According to lawmakers, there is general agreement that government regulation of AI is necessary.
“We’re starting to really tackle one of the most important issues facing the next generation, and we’re off to a great start today,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the meetings. However, Schumer, who organized the forum, also stated: “We still have a long way to go.”
Republican Sen. Todd Young believes the Senate is “reaching the point where I think the judicial committees will be ready to start considering legislation.”
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Mike Rounds warned that it would take some time for Congress to act. “Are we ready to go out and write laws? Absolutely not,” Reuters quoted Rounds as saying.
One of the issues that could potentially be a priority for lawmakers is protecting against potentially dangerous deep fakes. With this in mind, Schumer emphasized the need for regulation ahead of the 2024 US general election, as Reuters reports. “There are still a lot of things that need to be done, but this may have a quicker timeline than some others,” Schumer said.
The White House is expected to issue an AI regulation later this year, Reuters reports, while Congress is also considering AI legislation.
The “AI Insight Forum” was probably just the beginning of a series of meetings, which, according to Schumer, would probably take place publicly in the future.
Editorial team finanzen.net