- Talking to Guardian, the house member said the AI technology needs to be regulated with licenses. She suggests adopting the practice that we already follow in pharma and nuclear.
Lucy Powell, a digital spokesperson for the Labour Party expressed her views on the regulation of AI. As per a report by the Guardian, Lucy suggested that government start giving licenses to AI companies just like it does to pharma or nuclear companies. She said that the state should try to regulate the technology instead of implementing a blanket ban.
Growing concern over AI
The statement comes at a time when some nations took a hardline approach towards AI. In the month of March this year, Italy banned ChatGPT citing privacy concerns. However, they lifted it as soon as the OpenAI implemented some security measures in it the following month.
Powell said her concern is about the lack of regulation in AI tools. She emphasized that the large language models that are adaptable in various operations should come under some sort of scrutiny. The government needs to watch over their development, management, and control.
Powell’s comments find harmony with those of US Senator Lindsey Graham. The latter also advocated granting AI license during a congressional hearing in May. Notably, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, also assented to this. He even suggested that the government form a federal agency to set practices and standards.
Taking the discussion above, Altman said that he would form a new agency that would maintain compliance with certain standards. If any enterprise or individual project will not stick to these, then the license of that entity will be revoked.
Artificial Intelligence has been compared with nuclear technology by none other than the famed investor Warren Buffett. He said that you cannot uninvent certain things because they were created for the greater good. They continue to threaten our very existence nonetheless.
Little steps being taken
The same month, Geoffrey Hinton, the pioneer of Artificial Intelligence took a step to enlighten the world about this technology’s dark side. He resigned from his position at Google so he could warn people about the potential dangers of AI without any fear.
Last week, several leading technocrats, including Altman and Bill Gates, signed a resolution letter too. According to it, the signatories will allay the fears of extinction from AI. They will ensure that the technology never gets used against the society of the human race.
Also, the rapid of AI technology has raised concerns regarding it favoring the irrational and inhumane acts that degrade human society. Powell believes these concerns can be properly addressed if the developers share their data with the regulatory bodies.
She said that at this stage, AI cannot be allowed to drift on its own. It needs to be controlled to minimize risks and maximize global welfare.
Conclusion
The concerns aired by political and tech industry leaders certainly make AI a debatable issue on a global scale. The fear of extinction may look very far-fetched, but it makes us question the capabilities of the technology. For now, we can just wait and see how the governments and corporations make the most of this technology for our good.
