2023 may end up being remembered as the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI) conversations as the history books begin to be written. We have seen conversations of all kinds, from doomsday prophesying to its use in the classroom. It’s certainly a complicated issue with naysayers and proponents, and a confused public who just want to know how it’s going to affect their lives.
Due to its adaptive nature and near-universal applications, governments have started taking the initiative to lead these conversations. There have been summits featuring tech leaders discussing AI such as the one that took place this June.While June’s summit in San Francisco was very optimistic and ambitious in its view of AI, a business-like mindset may not be what is needed right now.
From Nov. 1-2, Britain is hosting a new summit. This one will have representatives of AI companies, political leaders and other experts. The goal here is to reach something close to an international consensus on the safe development of the software.
This initiative was started by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who wants the United Kingdom (UK) to be a leader in this new field. The first step of that was to begin the conversation.
Sunak wanted this event off the ground in six months, which some considered improbable.
“Ideally we would have had a year to prepare; we have been rushing to make this happen before the next [AI] models come,” one source involved with the summit’s planning said.
Sunak himself is skeptical of AI and its possible dangers. He emphasized the importance of the summit in a speech this week, warning that humanity could “lose control completely” if the issue is not given proper oversight.
We have seen this with the increasing popularity of ChatGPT, the generative AI capable of quickly replicating humanlike text and pulling information from the web.
While its applications have been numerous and many positive, experts warn of its ability to enable the spreading of misinformation or even its potential to be weaponized.The goal of the summit is for these leaders to reach a consensus and establish ground rules for the creation of “frontier AI.”
It is meant to be a peaceful event, with leaders of opposing countries coming. China, a common economic rival of Western powers, has accepted Britain’s invitation to attend. They’re just one of around 28 countries committed to attending the summit.
The scope of the summit has grown immensely as more and more groups commit to joining. Initially it was meant to just lay ground rules and discuss national security risks but now topics will include deepfakes, healthcare and more. The hope is that these parties will come together in the interest of the world and not just their own private concerns.
