Microsoft joins debate over AI regulation, urging the creation of a new US agency and executive order.
Microsoft on Thursday joined a broad international discussion on artificial intelligence regulation, reiterating calls for a new federal agency to oversee the advancement of the technology and urging the Biden administration to approve new restrictions on how the US government employs AI tools.
Microsoft President, Brad Smith outlined a five-point plan for how democratic countries could address the risks of AI while promoting a liberal vision for the technology that could compete with rival efforts from counties like China, in a speech in Washington that was attended by numerous members of Congress and civil society organizations.
The end users, including banks, hospitals, and other organizations that might use the technology to make life-altering decisions, should be subject to the same regulations as the data centers that train large language models, according to Smith.
For decades, “the rule of law and a commitment to democracy has kept technology in its proper place,” Smith said. “We’ve done it before; we can do it again.”
In his remarks, Smith joined calls made last week by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT in which Microsoft has invested billions, for the establishment of a new government regulator that can supervise a licensing system for cutting-edge AI development, along with testing and safety standards and legally required disclosure guidelines.
Smith also urged President Joe Biden to draft and sign an executive order mandating the implementation of a risk management methodology developed and published this year by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for federal agencies that procure AI tools.
That framework, which Congress first mandated with legislation in 2020, outlines how businesses might use AI in an ethical and responsible manner.
According to Smith, such an order would take advantage of the US government’s enormous purchasing power to influence the AI industry and promote the voluntary adoption of best practices.
Smith added that Microsoft intends to implement the NIST framework “across all of our services,” a decision he described as the immediate result of a recent White House meeting with AI CEOs in Washington.
Smith also committed to releasing an annual report on AI transparency.
Smith suggested as part of Microsoft’s proposal that any updated export controls for the AI era be included in any new regulations for AI to prevent the technology from being abused by sanctioned entities.
Smith’s comments and a related policy paper were published a week after Google unveiled its own suggestions for international cooperation and universal AI standards.
In a blog post announcing the company’s strategy, Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, stated that “AI is too important to regulate, and too important not to regulate well.”
Source-CNN
