Should we really go faster on AI?

ChatGPT hasn’t even been out in the world for two years, but already the conventional wisdom around the artificial intelligence that drives it is hardening. One such shibboleth comes from fear that eventually, humans might construct intelligent machines that could turn against us.

It’s true that most of the near- and mid-term risks of AI hinge on malicious human actions, writes James Arroyo of the Ditchley Foundation in his argument “The Least Risky AI Strategy Is a Bold One.” But only “the most privileged could imagine pausing at our current state of technological development as an attractive option,” Arroyo argues. In fact, we owe it to “those most threatened by terrorism, war, and famine to go forward faster” in AI development, he writes.

This month’s United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York will feature AI as a key theme. Yet, according to Rumman Chowdhury, a U.S. science envoy for AI, another common mistake in discussions of AI is to focus only on enhancing digital access and capability—rather than developing safeguards and ensuring responsible deployment. In “What the Global AI Governance Conversation Misses,” Chowdhury writes, “We must view global-majority adoption not just as an opportunity to accelerate their progress but as a chance to avoid repeating our own mistakes.”

Global corporate players are already lamenting the fragmentation of AI regulation. They say this will deprive users of valuable services or at least increase consumer costs. But while it’s true that regulatory diversity leads to higher transaction costs, this is an “analytically flawed” approach to AI regulation, according to Oxford’s Viktor Mayer-Sch?nberger and Urs Gasser of the Technical University Munich. In “A Realist Perspective on AI Regulation,” Mayer-Sch?nberger and Gasser argue that a bit of a mess when it comes to regulating AI is not only OK but to be expected.

The professors outline why AI is an inherently difficult technology to manage and govern and suggest that the benefits of harmonization only occur when everyone can agree on a regulatory goal or goals. “For regulating AI, the presence of this premise is unclear,” Mayer-Sch?nberger and Gasser write. Still, “[c]ollecting good ideas, sharing them with others, and learning from the experiences of others may be costly but far likely to be more successful in the long term.”

There are more perspectives from leading experts on the technology of our time coming very soon, so watch the FP website.—Amelia Lester, deputy editor

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Exercise Your Mind

An attack carried out by an affiliate of al Qaeda on Tuesday targeted a police training academy and an airport in the capital of which West African nation?

A. Burkina Faso

B. Ghana

C. Mali

D. Niger

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Answer: C. Mali. Competing foreign actors’ interventions in Mali have added another dangerous layer to the country’s already complicated security situation, John A. Lechner, Sergey Eledinov, and Adam Sandor write.