Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
Source: Alphabet
letter Chief Executive Sundar Pichai pledged to abide by the “artificial intelligence pact” when he met with top EU officials on Wednesday and discussed disinformation about elections and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In a meeting with Europe’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, Pichai said Alphabet’s Google would work with other companies to self-regulate to ensure responsible development of AI products and services.
“Agreed to Google CEO @SundarPichai to work with all major European and non-European #AI players to voluntarily develop an ‘Artificial Intelligence Convention’ before the statutory deadline for AI regulation,” Breton tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
“We want technology in Europe to respect all our rules on data protection, online safety and artificial intelligence. In Europe, it’s not about picking and choosing. I’m glad @SundarPichai recognizes this and that he’s committed to complying with all EU rules. “
The development hints at how top tech bosses are seeking appease politicians and ahead of looming regulations. Earlier this month, the European Parliament approved a groundbreaking package artificial intelligence rulesincluding ensuring that training data for tools like ChatGPT does not violate copyright laws.
The rules seek to take a risk-based approach to regulating AI, banning applications of technologies deemed “high risk” such as facial recognition, and imposing strict transparency restrictions on applications with limited risk.
Regulators are increasingly concerned about some of the risks surrounding artificial intelligence, and technology industry leaders, politicians, and academics have Alert About how new forms of artificial intelligence such as so-called generative artificial intelligence and the large language models that support them are developing.
These tools allow users to generate new content — such as a poem or an article in the style of William Wordsworth — by simply prompting them what to do.
They have raised concerns, not least because of their potential to disrupt the labor market and their ability to create disinformation.
Chat GPTAs the most popular generative AI tool, it has amassed more than 100 million users since its launch last November.Google Releases Its Own ChatGPT Alternative, Called google bardin March, and introduced an advanced new language model called PaLM 2 earlier this month.
In a separate meeting with European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova, Pichai pledged to ensure that his AI products are developed with safety in mind.
Both Pichai and Jourova “agreed that AI could have an impact on disinformation tools, and that everyone should prepare for a new wave of threats from AI,” according to the meeting, shared with CNBC.
“Part of the effort could go towards labeling or producing transparent AI-generated content. Mr. Pichai emphasized that Google’s AI model already includes safeguards and the company will continue to invest in this area to ensure the safe introduction of new products. “
Responding to Russian Propaganda
Pichai’s meeting with Jourova focused on disinformation surrounding Russia’s war in Ukraine and elections, according to a statement.
Jourova “raised concerns about pro-Kremlin war propaganda and the spread of disinformation, as did Google’s products and services,” according to a readout of the meeting. The EU official also discussed access to information in Russia.
Jourova asked Pichai to take “swift action” on the problems faced by independent Russian media that cannot monetize their content in Russia on YouTube. According to the readout, Pichai agreed to follow up on the issue.
Jourova also “highlighted the risk of disinformation in the electoral process of the EU and its member states.” The next elections to the European Parliament are due in 2024. There will also be regional and national elections in the EU this year and next.
However, Jourova praised Google’s “participation” in the EU’s Disinformation Code of Conduct, a self-regulatory framework published and revised in 2018 to incentivize online platforms to tackle disinformation. However, Jourova said that “more work needs to be done to improve reporting” under the framework.
Signatories to the code must report how they implement measures to tackle disinformation.
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