360 degrees on AI regulations
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LDS Commentary
The company of the future must demonstrate an intractable sense of purpose beyond profit. It must seek to become recognized as a force for good. A company that engineers a strong association with environmental, societal, and governmental integrity will already have a competitive edge in the future. Purpose is intrinsically linked to sustainable development. Those who seek to protect consumers will also protect the future of their brand. This approach will not only attract top talent, but also engage in constructive dialog with regulators, more trusting relationships with customers, and greater credibility with investors.
Regulations in the organization of the future will be written to focus on taking advantage of digital innovation. These mandates will encompass agility, as well as attributes like accessibility, openness, transparency, security, and speed. However, any contemporary failure to balance operational excellence with innovation excellence means that new technologies, new regulations, new business models, and new start-ups will inevitably disrupt and render the original vision obsolete within a short time.
Panelists: Vera Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission; Josephine Teo , Minister for Communications and Information, Singapore; Ian Bremmer , Political Scientist; Brad Smith , Vice Chairman of Microsoft; Arati Prabhakar , Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Summary
Each of the panelists in this fascinating session was asked what they would most like to ‘unhear’ from their discussions in Davos. Arati Prabhakar, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said it was anything that started with ‘AI will do this…’, while Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information, Singapore, suggested that we should be promoting ‘Augmented Intelligence’ rather than Artificial, to see how we can best serve the interest of all people. Vera Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission, said the threat to democracy was very real and voters were being manipulated by wrongful use of AI, while Brad Smith, Vice Chairman of Microsoft indicated we should shatter the myth that people in government don’t understand technology.
Even as Generative AI becomes the next normal, many democracies are already promoting regulatory action (e.g., Europe and its AI Act, which classifies the usage of Artificial Intelligence into risk categories based on use cases, and establishes accountability ascribed to the source of information).
Vera Jourová feels that the European AI Act, along with GDPR, is setting a standard that she hopes the rest of the world will follow. Arati Prabhakar believes that the United States needs to follow suit along the lines of privacy protection. Josephine Teo says that the focus should be on AI governance along with regulation. She sees this as a divergent phase globally, but over time is hopeful that we will all become clearer about which use cases are going to drive regulation. Brad Smith pointed out that despite the recent emergence of powerful AI applications, there are many existing laws in place - though not specific to AI - that cover the issues we are encountering today. However, Josephine Teo pointed out that deep fakes, such as stealing a person’s identity, are far worse than using data that is anonymized. ‘It’s someone being represented in a way that they never intended, and there is something fundamentally wrong with that. It’s an assault on the infrastructure of truth. How can society function if deep fakes are confronting us all of the time and we can’t separate reality from fiction? This is one area that we as nations have to come up with an answer to, and in the not-too-distant future.’
Effective governance of AI will happen with all relevant parties at the table, including business leaders, government representatives, civil society, and educators. Brad Smith mentioned that there are some areas where we already have universally shared values, even in a world that is so divided. Every country wants humanity to remain in control of this technology. ‘Yet we must ask when do people answer the same question in a different way and why? We can look at the European AI Act versus the Chinese measures, and we can see in one the voice of Aristotle and in the other the voice of Confucious – long and different philosophical traditions that manifest themselves on how governments manage society.’
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