Exponential growth of AI: need for global regulations to keep misuse in check

The past few months have been all about the rise and popularity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and lately, people all over the world have started to compare it to the computer and smartphone revolution.

It is no secret that AI is here to disrupt and very soon, people will incorporate it into their lives similarly to computers, smartwatches, smartphones and virtual assistants.

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AI has taken massive strides since November 2022 (when ChatGPT became publicly available) that even technology giant Google, feeling threatened, rushed to complete its own AI technology, Bard, which was in progress.

Recently, OpenAI, the firm behind the creation and launch of ChatGPT, launched an upgraded version of AI known as GPT-4. This propelled AI to the next level and unleashed its potential far more than even tech entrepreneurs could have imagined.

While AI can be a huge benefit for the mankind, it also comes with a few costs and the global tech leaders have begun to imagine what destruction AI can cause.

Subsequently, last week, Tesla founder Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts and industry executives called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s newly launched GPT-4, in an open letter citing potential risks to society.

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“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” said the letter issued by the Future of Life Institute.

This is seemingly a positive step towards regulation of AI in the world as it calls for limiting the technology for the next six months.

Moreover, countries are beginning to introduce AI regulations to deal with its adverse use. The UK government recently announced to introduce laws surrounding AI. On the other hand, Italy took a different step and banned ChatGPT in the country over privacy concerns.

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All this points to the fact that soon the world will have universal AI regulations much like social media which will help stop criminal activity and misuse of the new technology.

With social media, the regulations were not created for a long time following its launch. Later, privacy became the main concern for which laws were enacted.

Similarly, content creators, particularly on YouTube, were initially free to do whatever they wanted and it was only when the service grew exponentially when the laws were adopted.

With laws targeting AI being discussed before its mass adoption by the globe, it is less likely to be misused and it seems like an excellent step.

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However, the signatories in the letter could also be supporting it because they fear that AI will soon take over their jobs or reduce their worth in the market. For a long time, Elon Musk rallied for AI-supported Tesla cars, therefore it came as a surprise when he called for pausing advancement in AI.

Similarly, many officials from Google also signed it when it became clear that Alphabet Inc was already working on their own AI bot. This seems to be a conflict of interest and fear of breaking a monopoly.

Surprisingly, no tech firm or other company has stepped up to aid the creation of rules and regulations for AI, rather, they all called for stopping its advancement. There seems to be an ulterior motive behind the latter.

On the flip side, there is a dire need to regulate AI because with the pace of its progress, it seems like it will hit a new peak every few months. The gap between the release of two revolutionary AI technologies, ChatGPT and GPT-4 was just 4 months.

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The features offered by the newer version have already exceeded expectations. However, while the two services detect and block misuse, the security barriers in place will likely be broken in the near future because hackers are already at work.

Moreover, since the number of users of the two services grew exponentially, a data leak can be quite dangerous for the entire world.

Inevitable rise of AI: opportunity more than a threat

While it is a right move by the companies to detect the threats posed by AI, they should also take a step forward to introduce global regulations rather than to pause the progress of AI.

The article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Recorder or its owners