The Tamesis
OpenAI chief Sam Altman acknowledged the urgent need for regulation of artificial intelligence at a summit in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the impacts, risks and opportunities of the rapidly evolving technology.
Generative AI ignites huge wave of demand stock market boom For many tech companies, but many analysts and AI insiders say it has also heightened global anxiety about the potential severe impacts on people and the planet.
Unlike some other speakers at the summit, Altman, founder and CEO of one of the nation’s leading AI research and deployment companies, was relatively brief in acknowledging the risks of AI.
“The concentration of this technology in one company or one country could lead to destruction,” he said. “That’s not to say we don’t need any regulation or safeguards. Clearly, we desperately need any regulation or safeguards, just as we do with other powerful technologies.”
See also: Potential peak in China’s carbon emissions sparks hope and concern
Stuart Russell issued a stronger warning, Professor at University of California, BerkeleyTech CEOs are locked in an artificial intelligence “arms race” that threatens to wipe out the human race, he said on Tuesday.
Russell is a professor of computer science and engineering at UK and director of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence. He is co-author of a textbook promoting safe and beneficial artificial intelligence.
At the summit two days ago, he said the heads of the world’s largest artificial intelligence companies understand the dangers posed by superintelligent systems that could one day overwhelm humans.
For him, the responsibility for ensuring humanity’s survival lies with world leaders capable of collective action.
“In my opinion, the government is completely derelict in allowing private entities to play Russian roulette with everyone on the planet,” he said.
Russell is clearly a leading voice on AI safety issues, but there’s still Doubt whether machines can really become super-intelligent.
Part of the anxiety, however, has to do with the fact that both China and the United States share common interests. Refusing to rule out the use of artificial intelligence in military activities.
Modi urges AI to be used for ‘common good’
The AI Impact Summit is the fourth annual gathering to discuss what to do with advanced computing power.
It is the largest yet and a first for a developing country, as India takes the opportunity to advance its ambitions to catch up with the United States and China in the race for artificial intelligence.
“We have to democratize AI. It has to be a medium of inclusion and empowerment,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally on Thursday.
“We are entering an era where humans and intelligent systems co-create, co-work and co-evolve,” he said. “We must be determined to use artificial intelligence for the global common good.”
UN Secretary-General: Artificial Intelligence benefits everyone, not just billionaires
Modi’s comments were echoed by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called on tech giants to support a $3 billion global fund to ensure open access to artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence must belong to everyone,” Guterres said.
“The future of artificial intelligence cannot be determined by a few countries or the whims of a few billionaires,” he said.
Researchers and activists say stronger action is needed to tackle emerging problems, from work disruptions to network abuse and huge power demands on data centers.
But the broad focus of New Delhi’s event and vague promises made at previous summits may make concrete commitments less likely to materialize.
Google’s Sundar Pichai and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei were the other tech CEOs who spoke. The latter was embarrassed when he found himself standing next to his former boss, Ultraman. The relationship between the two still appears to be strained: they were unable to hold hands when posing for photos.
huge investment commitments
World leaders attended the summit, along with tens of thousands of people from across industries. Last year’s host, French President Emmanuel Macron, said he was determined to ensure safe oversight of AI.
“Europe is not blindly focused on regulation – Europe is a space for innovation and investment, but also a safe space,” he said, according to AFP.
US Vice President Vance warned in Paris last year that “over-regulation” “could stifle transformative industries”. But this year the U.S. delegation has kept a low profile.
India expects investment to exceed $200 billion over the next two years, with U.S. tech giants also unveiling new deals and infrastructure projects this week.
OpenAI and Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced on Thursday that they will build a hyperscale artificial intelligence data center in India.
Next is Adani Group Announcement On Tuesday, the company planned to invest $100 billion over the next decade to build “artificial intelligence-ready data centers” powered by renewable energy.
On Thursday, Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, who topped the list, said his conglomerate, Reliance to spend $110 billion About data centers and computing.
Google said on Wednesday it plans to lay undersea cables from India as part of an existing $15 billion investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
NVIDIA, the U.S. chip giant with the world’s highest market value, also said it is cooperating with Indian cloud computing companies to provide advanced processors for data centers to train and run artificial intelligence systems.
Power-hungry AI data centers are being built on a massive scale around the world as companies race to develop super-intelligent systems.
Increased demand for electricity and water to cool hot servers has sparked alarm as countries pledge to tackle climate change by decarbonizing their electricity grids.
Don’t forget 318 million people are hungry: World Food Program
Last year, India jumped to third place in an annual global artificial intelligence competitiveness ranking calculated by researchers at Stanford University, although experts say it is still a long way from matching the United States and China.
Leaders are expected to issue a statement on Friday on how they plan to approach artificial intelligence technology.
One concern is disruption to the job market, especially in India, where millions of people are employed in call centers and technology support services.
“We will prove that artificial intelligence will not take away jobs. On the contrary, it will create new high-skilled jobs,” Ambani said on Thursday.
Amid the dizzying multi-billion-dollar deals, top U.N. officials provide a timely reminder that world hunger levels are at record highs and donor support is dwindling.
Carl SkowThe deputy director of the World Food Program, who attended the summit, said he hoped artificial intelligence could help save cash and prevent millions from dying of hunger as funding for the world’s largest food aid agency collapses.
“We are struggling everywhere,” Scow told AFP, despite record global food insecurity and access to financing being cut.
“There’s really not enough attention being paid to the global food security crisis and how those of us trying to address it are currently floundering.”
The WFP says 318 million people in 68 countries face acute hunger this year. That number has risen sharply in the past five years due to overlapping shocks: war disrupting supply chains, rising fertilizer and fuel costs and harvest failures in climate-vulnerable regions.
U.S. President Trump drastically cut foreign aid after taking office last year, dealing a heavy blow to global humanitarian operations.
Scow said he hopes AI can help leverage dwindling resources by optimizing delivery routes, predicting crop failures and identifying communities most at risk.
WFP data chief Magan Naidoo said artificial intelligence tools were helping deliver aid, processing data and complex logistics to ensure “greater efficiency” in distribution systems and improve targeting.
“This is critical at a time when funding is down significantly,” he said, suggesting that AI could improve the WFP’s operational efficiency and forecast accuracy by as much as 30 to 50 percent.
- Jim Pollard, AFP.
See also:
China and U.S. opt out of global commitment to military use of artificial intelligence
4,000 CEOs say AI has no impact: Study spurs massive sell-off
India’s tougher rules on social media AI spark censorship concerns
Tech leaders fly to India for AI summit amid concerns
Amid Hollywood outrage over AI video models, ByteDance vows to make changes
Nvidia delays sales of artificial intelligence chips to China again due to security review
Amazon, Microsoft will invest more than $50 billion in artificial intelligence in India
Google to invest $15 billion in building artificial intelligence data center in India
The idea of artificial intelligence superintelligence is a ‘fantasy’ – US researchers
China ‘cuts electricity bills in half’ for its AI chip companies – FT
Senior analyst warns that artificial intelligence is ‘virtually useless’
When AI hallucinates in times of war
