The emergence of generative AI This year, it came out of nowhere and captured the imagination and attention of the tech world. Businesses seem to be fully embracing this and feel that perhaps this has the potential to be a truly transformative technology. But despite companies’ best efforts to capitalize on this potential opportunity, a dark cloud hangs over their enthusiasm.
This is a big regulatory unknown that could have significant implications for all companies selling and implementing generative AI. Biden announced an executive order setting out broad guidelines. The AI Safety Summit Conference was held in the UK. And the EU is also grappling with its own potentially stringent requirements.
The rise of generative AI has been met with mixed reactions, including a letter signed by 1,100 tech industry figures last March calling for a six-month moratorium on AI development. There was also. Of course that didn’t happen. While some people are hysterically shouting that AI is an existential threat, the trend is actually accelerating.
At the other end of the spectrum are those who believe that regulation of any kind stifles innovation without creating any real protection. The main debate is how can we protect people from negative outcomes until we know what the negative outcomes are? Of course, some may argue that if we wait for such a bad outcome, we may be too late to do anything.
And some people see the existential threat argument this way. smoke screen It masks the real problems facing the current generation of AI. To make matters worse, overly strict regulations favor the wealthiest and most established companies, crowding out startups that may not be able to afford to comply.
There is something to be said for this, too, especially when incumbents are helping draft the same regulations. It raises some interesting questions about how much should be regulated and where the right answers lie.
Regulate it or leave it alone?
Most people seem to think that AI regulation is a natural, perhaps even necessary thing, especially those who view it from a purely dystopian science fiction perspective. However, this is not always the case.in marc andreessen Rambling Protech ManifestoPublished in October, he envisions a world of unfettered and unregulated technology, where regulators are the enemy of progress.
“We believe that intelligence is the ultimate driver of progress,” he writes. “Intelligence makes everything better. Smart people and smart societies outperform not-so-smart people on almost every metric we can measure. Intelligence is humanity’s birthright. We must expand it as fully and broadly as possible.”
In his view, regulating AI could be akin to murder in some cases. “We believe that slowing down AI will cost lives. Any death that could be prevented by AI is one that was prevented from existing and is a form of murder.”
He’s not alone in having some views.