Legislators in the United States and all over the world have started to push to the floor new regulations targeting the recently released novel mass-market artificial intelligence systems.
These calls for additional oversight from the government take place after ChatGPT, which is a language processing tool that many knowledge workers are making use of to deal with tasks such as debugging code and authoring emails over the course of a few seconds, have started to garner worldwide acclaim. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) stated via an opinion piece published in The New York Times that he is “enthralled” by the creation of this artificial intelligence but at the same time “freaked out” when the new tech is “left unchecked and unregulated.”
The legislator, who has previously obtained a degree in computer science from Stanford University, made specific reference to a set of falsified pictures and videos which have become known as deep fakes, the radicalization of “foreign terrorists and domestic white supremacists,” and discrimination against racial minorities. Lieu sounded the call for a “dedicated agency” which will regulate artificial intelligence due to technology experts being much more equipped to introduce statutes at a quicker rate than any legislator could. “Congress has been slow to react when it comes to technological issues,” he wrote. “But things are changing.”
As worries mount regarding the possible dangers of mass-market artificial intelligence, a large number of professionals have expressed that ChatGPT has sparked an increase in their overall efficiency when doing mundane tasks. Close to 27% of employees working for prominent consulting, technology, and financial services companies have already made use of these systems in a number of ways, as reported in the results of a survey from Fishbowl.
As part of a Friday announcement, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained that both the United States and the European Union have joined together to sign an agreement to “drive responsible advancements” when it comes to artificial intelligence in order to deal with challenges such as climate and extreme weather, emergency response, and electric grid optimization. Previously, the White House unveiled an “AI Bill of Rights” outline to combat privacy breaches and discrimination.
“Automated systems have brought about extraordinary benefits, from technology that helps farmers grow food more efficiently and computers that predict storm paths, to algorithms that can identify diseases in patients,” stated the framework. “This important progress must not come at the price of civil rights or democratic values, foundational American principles that President Biden has affirmed as a cornerstone of his administration.”
As the company that created ChatGPT, OpenAI recently released an announcement that Microsoft would be sending out billions more dollars into possible solutions in the wake of investments sent into the platform in 2019 and 2021. Researchers have recently started to look into the potential of the tools for exams thought to be hard for even the smartest students: ChatGPT showed results “at or near the passing threshold” for all of the components needed for the United States Medical Licensing Exam without “any specialized training or reinforcement,” as explained via one research paper.
