The three forces that regulate AI – 10/22/2023 – Ronaldo Lemos

Do you remember the world six months ago? In it, there were even public letters asking for limits on artificial intelligence. The main one was carried out by the Institute for the Future of Life. It claimed that AI posed “profound risks to society and humanity” and called for a halt to research on models superior to GPT-4 for six months. Precisely to give time to create some type of regulation on technology.

The letter was a success. It was signed by more than 30,000 researchers and celebrities, including Elon Musk and Yuval Harari.

The letter celebrated its six-month anniversary yesterday. Nobody sang happy birthday (only this columnist). Especially because the letter was solemnly ignored. No research on AI has stopped. They all accelerated strongly. Elon Musk himself created his own artificial intelligence company three months after signing the letter. Open AI added image search to ChatGPT, in addition to launching new products like the Dall-E 3. Google also released its AI-based smartphone.

In short, the letter ended up becoming in practice a great marketing piece for artificial intelligence services. Perhaps the first time that “profound risks to humanity” has become a commercial slogan. Capable of accelerating, rather than slowing, the expansion of AI companies.

And has the regulation of Artificial Intelligence, another objective of the letter, progressed? The answer is yes, but not in the way the letter wanted. It proposed the creation of “new regulatory authorities dedicated to AI” and “identification systems capable of distinguishing real and synthetic images” and “robust certification and auditing methods.” None of that happened. In today’s world, the chances of this happening are getting smaller and smaller.

However, three unexpected regulatory forces emerged in this period to regulate artificial intelligence: copyright, data protection and labor relations. None of them are new or have sparkly names like the letter wanted. But it is these three forces that are putting artificial intelligence platforms in check.

Data protection is today (along with consumer rights) one of the regulatory tools that allow public authorities to challenge AI companies. They all have a legal obligation to protect personal data and the consumer. If they step out of line, they are in the hot seat.

Copyright, in turn, became a regulatory lever. Can AI companies train their intelligent models using copyrighted works? There are now four major lawsuits in the US filed by intellectual creators against AI platforms. The most famous was signed by writers such as John Grisham and George RR Martin from Game of Thrones. The decision to take these actions will have a global impact on AI platforms.

Finally, it is labor relations that ended up gaining more immediate regulatory limits. The strike of screenwriters and creative professionals in the USA achieved real results. It has limited the expansion of AI in the creative industries in which they work. This was the card that has worked so far.

It’s over – letters asking for a pause in AI research

Already – AI advancing rapidly

It’s coming – Copyright, data protection and labor relations as the real regulatory forces of artificial intelligence

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