In recent months, laments about the parlous state of governance as it pertains to artificial intelligence (AI) have reached a crescendo. Some critics point to business leaders who enthusiastically embrace AI while paying less attention to regulation. Others take inadequate governance as given. There have been numerous urgent warnings about the need for more and better regulation of this exploding technology.
That this angst is peaking now is unsurprising. AI capabilities have progressed tremendously in the past decade and keep growing year to year. This technology can now generate realistic images from text, predict the sequence of formerly unknown proteins, write code and author marketing campaigns. AI governance mechanisms are, of course, essential in ensuring that AI benefits rather than harms humanity. Forget about the possibility of “the singularity” — a point where technology evolves beyond humanity’s capacity to understand or control it. Right now, as AI becomes more economically entrenched, it will be important to have, for example, robots that enhance and ease jobs rather than replace them. We need racially unbiased facial recognition systems. Regulations are critical for just outcomes.
