According to the British Labour Party, the United Kingdom should forbid technology developers from working on sophisticated artificial intelligence capabilities unless they have a licence to do so.
Speaking on behalf of Britain’s largest left-wing political party, Lucy Powell told the Guardian this week that corporations should be subject to considerably stronger regulations governing the training of their AI products using massive datasets like those used by OpenAI to create ChatGPT.
“My real point of concern is the lack of any regulation of the large language models that can then be applied across a range of AI tools, whether that’s governing how they are built, how they are managed, or how they are controlled,” said Powell, who proposed that AI should be licenced in a manner akin to both the medical industry and nuclear power. Both industries are strictly governed by British government agencies.
“That kind of model is what we should be thinking about, where you have to have a licence in order to build these models,” she told the Guardian. These, in my opinion, are the best illustrations of how this can be accomplished.
Keir Starmer of the British Labour Party (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
Powell emphasised that rather than outright outlawing some technologies, as the European Union has done with facial recognition software, the government’s attention should be on controlling technological growth.
Because of how quickly technology is developing, she argued, governments should adopt an active, interventionist strategy rather than a laissez-faire one. The unintended repercussions of this technology can include bias, prejudice, and surveillance.
Experts have raised concern about the possibility of using AI as a weapon to sway public opinion and advance particular ideologies. Another issue is that the datasets themselves, upon which products like ChatGPT are built, may contain information that is biassed or discriminatory and may have unintended consequences, for example, if AI technologies are used to assist in recruiting and terminating personnel.
Powell’s remarks were made the same day that Matt Clifford, a senior advisor to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, issued a dire warning in an interview, stating that AI might be responsible for advancements that “kill many humans” in just two years. Clifford also brought up the possibility that AI could produce lethal biological and cyber weapons that could cause a great deal of casualties.
“It’s undeniably true that there will be a potential for all kinds of risks if we try and create artificial intelligence that is more intelligent than humans and we don’t know how to control it,” said Clifford. Therefore, I believe there are many various situations to be concerned about, but I do believe it is correct that it should be extremely high on the agendas of the policymakers.
Sunak acknowledged the potential “existential threat” posed by AI during a recent meeting with top AI experts.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain talks on May 23, 2023, at King’s College in London, during the London Defence Conference. The following was provided by Ben Stansall/Pool via REUTERS.
The participants released a joint statement in which they stated that “the PM and CEOs discussed the risks of the technology, ranging from disinformation and national security to existential threats.” The PM outlined how regulation of artificial intelligence will need to keep up with the rapidly advancing nature of this field of study.
Weeks before, the departing British Chief Scientific Advisor urged lawmakers to take quick action to prevent massive job loss, warning that AI could prove to be as transformative as the Industrial Revolution.
According to Sir Patrick Vallance, the impact on employment could be comparable to that of the Industrial Revolution. He made this statement to the House of Commons committee on science, innovation, and technology. There will be tasks that AI can perform, which may result in many people losing their jobs or in many people having jobs that only humans can perform.
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Similarly, Powell told the Guardian that she thought the British economy’s disruption would be as severe as the deindustrialization of the 1970s and 1980s.
For a two-day visit, Sunak landed in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The British prime minister is apparently trying to position the country as a global authority on artificial intelligence governance during their encounter.
The Labour Party is now striving to complete its own advanced technology plans. According to reports, Labour leader Keir Starmer will speak on the matter the next week.
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