Contrary to far-fetched fears of technology destroying humanity, the past year has highlighted tangible threats posed by AI-generated counterfeiting and the flood of automation of jobs in copywriting and customer service. The debate has taken on new urgency amid global efforts to regulate the rapidly evolving technology.
“Last year, the conversation was ‘gee whiz,'” Chris Padilla, IBM’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs, said in an interview. “Now, what are these risks? What do we have to do to make AI trustworthy?
The topic has taken over the confab: Panels with AI CEOs including Sam Altman are the hottest tickets in town, and tech giants including Salesforce and IBM have lined the snow-covered streets with ads for reliable AI. have done
But growing worries about the dangers of AI are impacting the tech industry’s marketing blitz.
The event kicked off Tuesday with Swiss President Viola Emhardt calling for “global governance of AI,” raising concerns that the technology could be supercharged by disinformation as countries race to the polls. can In a sleek street-side Microsoft cafe after the release of the International Monetary Fund report this week, CEO Satya Nadella tried to allay concerns that the AI revolution will leave behind the world’s poorest people. , in which the technology threatens to worsen inequality. social stress. Over canapés and cocktails down the road at the Alpine Inn, Google CFO Ruth Porat pledged to work with policymakers to “develop responsible regulation” and the company’s investment in efforts to retrain workers. emphasized.
But calls for a response have exposed the limitations of this annual summit, as efforts to coordinate a global strategy for the technology have been hampered by economic tensions between the world’s leading AI powers, the United States and China.
Meanwhile, countries have competing geopolitical interests when it comes to regulating AI: Western governments are considering laws that stand to benefit companies within their borders, while India, South America and Leaders in other parts of the Global South see technology as the key to opening up. economic prosperity.
The AI debate is a microcosm of a broader paradox unfolding at Davos, as attendees put on their snowshoes and sample premium wines, go sledding and belt out classic rock hits in a piano lounge hosted by cybersecurity firm Cloudflare. Ballot out. The importance of the conference, established more than 50 years ago to promote globalization during the Cold War, is being questioned amid escalating wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, rising populism and climate threats.
In a speech on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised the dual threats of climate chaos and artificial AI, noting that they had been “thoroughly discussed” by the Davos set.
“And yet, we still don’t have an effective global strategy to deal with one,” he said. “Geopolitical divisions are preventing us from coming together around a global solution.”
It’s clear that tech companies aren’t waiting for governments to catch up, and legacy banks, media companies and accounting firms at Davos are considering how to incorporate AI into their businesses.
Davos regulars say the growing investment in AI is evident on the Promenade, where companies take over storefronts to host meetings and events. In recent years, buzzwords like Web3, blockchain and crypto have dominated these outlets. But this year, programming shifted to AI. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Emirati firm G42 even sponsored an “AI House,” a chalet-style building that hosted speakers including Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann Likon, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and MIT professor Max Tegmark. Transformed into a communal space for listening.
Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer for global policy at Circle and veteran WEF representative, said the walk effectively served as “a focus group for the next emerging tech wave.”
Executives indicated that AI will become an even more influential force in 2024, as companies build more advanced AI models and developers use these systems to power new products. At a panel hosted by Axios, Altman said the overall intelligence of OpenAI’s models is “growing across the board.” In the long term, he predicted, the technology would “greatly accelerate the rate of scientific discovery.”
But even as the company moves forward, he said he worries that politicians or bad actors could misuse the technology to influence elections. OpenAI doesn’t yet know what election threats will emerge this year, but it will try to make changes quickly and work with external partners, he said. On Monday, as the conference got under way, the company laid out a set of election promises, including a commitment to help people identify when images were created by its generator, DALL-E. Gone.
“I’m nervous about it, and I think it’s good that we’re nervous about it,” he said.
OpenAI, which has fewer than 1,000 employees, has a significantly smaller team working on polls than larger social media companies like Meta and TikTok. Altman defended his commitment to election protection, saying that team size is not the best way to measure the company’s work in this area. But the Washington Post found last year that the company does not enforce its existing policies on political targeting.
Policymakers fear that companies are not thinking enough about the social implications of their products. At the same event, Eva Medill, a member of the European Parliament, said she was preparing recommendations for AI companies ahead of the global election.
“The theme of this year’s annual meeting is rebuilding trust,” said Maydale, who worked on the bloc’s AI Act, which is expected to become law this year after a political deal in December. “I very much hope that this will not be the year that we lose faith in our democratic process because of misinformation, because of an inability to explain the truth.”