Myers West says her secondment taught her that AI regulation doesn’t have to start from a blank slate. Instead of waiting for AI-specific regulations, such as the EU’s AI Act, which will take years to put into place, regulators should ramp up enforcement of existing data protection and competition laws.
Because AI as we know it today is largely dependent on massive amounts of data, data policy is also artificial intelligence policy, says Myers West.
Case in point: ChatGPT has faced intense scrutiny from European and Canadian data protection authorities, and has been blocked in Italy over allegedly scraping personal data off the web illegally and misusing personal data.
The call for regulation is not just happening among government officials. Something interesting has happened. After decades of fighting regulation tooth and nail, today most tech companies, including OpenAI, claim they welcome it.
The big question everyone’s still fighting over is how AI should be regulated. Tech companies claim they support regulation, but they’re still pursuing a “release first, ask question later” approach when it comes to launching AI-powered products. Tech companies are rushing to release image- and text-generating AI models as products, despite these models having major flaws, such as making up nonsense, perpetuating harmful biases, infringing copyright and containing security vulnerabilities.
The White House’s proposal to tackle AI accountability with post-AI product launch measures such as algorithmic audits are not enough to mitigate AI harms, AI Now’s report argues. Stronger, swifter action is needed to ensure companies first prove their models are fit for release, Myers West says.
“We should be very wary of approaches that do not put the burden on companies. There are a lot of approaches to regulation that essentially put the onus on the broader public and on regulators to root out AI-enabled harms,” says Myers West.
And importantly, Myers West says, regulators need to take action swiftly.