The United States and European Union share fascination and concern about all the opportunities – and risks – of the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (AI) across the board. Europe is already preparing with a groundbreaking law that aims to regulate all aspects of AI, but it may still be years before it is passed – it is still in the legislative negotiation phase in Brussels – and comes into force. A precious few years for this type of technology to continue advancing unchecked. That’s something Washington and Brussels want to prevent, and they will soon present a voluntary “code of conduct” for companies developing this type of technology, according to progress made at a bilateral meeting in Sweden on Wednesday.
“In the coming weeks, we will advance a proposal for a code of practice for generative AI, to which industry can voluntarily commit,” said the European Commission’s Vice-President for Digital and Competitiveness, Margrethe Vestager, at the end of a ministerial meeting of the branch with the United States in Lulea, Sweden. The text, jointly drafted with the United States, on which both industry and experts are being consulted, should be available “very, very soon, in the coming weeks,” he added.
The announcement comes 24 hours before Sam Altman, founder of the OpenAI company that developed ChatGPT, the technology that set off everyone’s alarm bells, arrives in Brussels as part of a European tour that has taken him to various capitals including Madrid. At the EU headquarters, Altman, one of the proponents of regulating generative AI, will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a closed-door “working meeting”. But first, Altman met with Vestager and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in Lulea, where they discussed the potential voluntary code of conduct, which could include controls, such as watermarks or external audits, according to “ideas” discussed with generative AI developers, Vestager said in a tweet.
The EU wants to be a pioneer in the regulation of artificial intelligence and has presented a legislative proposal for this, the AI Act. The text is to be adopted in the next plenary session of the European Parliament, i.e. in mid-June. This is the beginning of the phase. Negotiations with the Council of the EU and the Commission to reach an agreement on a final text that will come into force across the EU after its re-ratification by the Twenty-Seven and the European Parliament.
But as Vestager pointed out this Wednesday, generative AI represents a game changer that is “so powerful” it may not be possible to wait for lawmakers to do their job. “We have several different legislative processes, they will take two to three years to come into force, and we are talking about an incredible technological acceleration,” said Vestager during an appearance with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Raimondo.
A voluntary code of conduct, which Vestager says also wants to encourage companies from other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan or India to join, could be a regulatory “bridge” until current or future regulations come into force. Laws in other regions – giving citizens confidence that “democracies” will respond to their challenges and concerns.
The move comes just a day after a group of 350 executives, researchers and engineers who are experts in the technology signed a 22-word open letter about the risks of this technology. “Reducing the risk of extinction [para la humanidad] “The use of AI, along with other societal risks such as pandemics and nuclear war, should be a global priority,” the statement, which was signed by senior executives from three of the largest artificial intelligence companies, among others: Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic). Also among the signers are researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, who are often credited as the godfathers of the modern AI movement. Hinton left Google a few weeks ago, where he was vice president, because he believes that this technology can lead to the end of civilization in a few years, as he confessed to EL PAÍS.
The statement comes at a time of growing concerns about a fast-moving and difficult-to-control industry. Sam Altman himself had already commented on this topic during his appearance before the US Senate when he recognized the importance of regulating generative artificial intelligence. “My biggest fear is that this technology will go wrong. And when it goes wrong, it can go very wrong,” he said just two weeks ago during the first AI hearing on Capitol Hill. OpenAI’s father added that he understands that “people are concerned about how.” [la IA] It can transform the way we live” and for this reason it is necessary “to work together to identify and overcome the possible disadvantages so that we can all enjoy the enormous advantages”.
Nor was it the first time one of the most involved business people in the technology had made statements of this magnitude about the future of AI. In March, more than a thousand intellectuals, researchers, and businesspeople signed another open letter demanding that the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT4, the latest version of ChatGPT, be halted for “at least six months”. In the letter, the signatories warned that the OpenAI tool was already capable of competing with humans on an increasing number of tasks and could be used to destroy jobs and spread disinformation.
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