Sam the AI-Man Explains His Favorite Song, My Way, to the European Union
July 18, 2023
![Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[1]](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t1-34.gif "Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[1]")
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
It seems someone is uncomfortable with AI regulation despite asking for regulation. TIME posts this “Exclusive: OpenAI Lobbied the E.U. to Water Down AI Regulation.” OpenAI insists AI must be regulated posthaste. CEO Sam Altman even testified to congress about it. But when push comes to legislative action, the AI-man balks. At least when it affects his company. Reporter Billy Perrigo tells us:
“The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has spent the last month touring world capitals where, at talks to sold-out crowds and in meetings with heads of governments, he has repeatedly spoken of the need for global AI regulation. But behind the scenes, OpenAI has lobbied for significant elements of the most comprehensive AI legislation in the world—the E.U.’s AI Act—to be watered down in ways that would reduce the regulatory burden on the company.”
What, to Altman’s mind, makes OpenAI exempt from the much-needed regulation? Their product is a general-purpose AI, as opposed to a high-risk one. So it contributes to benign projects as well as consequential ones. How’s that for logic? Apparently it was good enough for EU regulators. Or maybe they just caved to OpenGI’s empty threat to pull out of Europe.
Is it true that Mr. AI-Man only follows the rules he promulgates? Thanks for the Leonardo-like image of students violating a university’s Keep Off the Grass rule.
We learn:
“The final draft of the Act approved by E.U. lawmakers did not contain wording present in earlier drafts suggesting that general purpose AI systems should be considered inherently high risk. Instead, the agreed law called for providers of so-called ‘foundation models,’ or powerful AI systems trained on large quantities of data, to comply with a smaller handful of requirements including preventing the generation of illegal content, disclosing whether a system was trained on copyrighted material, and carrying out risk assessments.”
Of course, all of this may be a moot point given the catch-22 of asking legislators to regulate technologies they do not understand. Tech companies’ lobbying dollars seem to provide the most clarity.
Cynthia Murrell, July 18, 2023
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