Growing concerns about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence have pushed European leaders to bring forward moderating legislation more quickly than anticipated. But some fear this still won’t come soon enough.
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ made headlines around the world earlier this month after he quit Google with deep regret about his life’s work. His journey dubbed by The New York Times as one “from AI groundbreaker to doomsayer,” Mr. Hinton said, “it is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.” Some days later, 19 current and former leaders of an artificial intelligence academic society added to the growing chorus with an open letter in which they noted their worries,
including the potential for AI systems to make errors, to provide biased recommendations, to threaten our privacy, to empower bad actors with new tools, and to have an impact on jobs.
The EU has been kept on edge about how to properly regulate artificial intelligence for some time, apparently failing to keep up with language models like ChatGPT. Recognising this struggle, Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager this week stressed that “there is no time to waste” on passing restrictions. She told reporters in Berlin:
What I think is important is speed. We really need our legislation to get in place … I really hope that we can have the first meeting of the political negotiation before summer so that we can end it this year.
Reports suggest that European lawmakers want not only to adequately protect citizens from the dangers of AI but also “be the global pioneer[s]” in creating a framework that both prevents harm and safeguards innovation. Ms. Vestager’s comments came shortly before MEPs in particular parliamentary committees voted on Thursday in favour of curbs. The full European Parliament is set to vote on relevant legislation next month. The growing popularity of applications, including ChatGPT, means politicians now have an “avalanche of amendments” to consider, according to TechXplore.
