It has been a busy week in Paris. Tech and world leaders gathered at the Grand Palais in Paris to attend the AI Action Summit, which sought to discuss AI policy and find common ground on technology.
World leaders and representatives from over 100 countries participated in the summit, including Sam Altman from OpenAI and globally influential politicians like JD Vance and Narendra Modi. However, some key representatives were missing. Elon Musk, for instance, could not attend the summit in person due to being in the “middle of critical work in Washington DC” but offered to participate via video.
Democracy, security, and transparency
The summit’s goal was to ensure that AI is transparent, ethical, safe, open, secure, and trustworthy. French President Emmanuel Macron, who co-hosted the Paris AI summit with Narendra Modi, mentioned that this summit was a “wake-up call” for EU strategy.
Democracy was one of the key areas of focus. Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal spoke about AI’s impact on the US democracy. Meredith has a long history in the tech sector, and worked at Google for more than 10 years. She organized mass walkouts after being disappointed by Google’s AI ethics before submitting a resignation in 2019. Aritificial intelligence was “born from the business model surveillance”, she said. Whittaker further added that “data can be used as a weapon” against democracy in the US.
Edgards Reinkevics, the Latvian President, also seems to share Meredith Whittaker’s views. He mentioned that Latvia has faced a number of disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks due to its geographical and geopolitical situation. Other neighboring countries like Russia, Estonia, and Lithuania have also been targeted with numerous cyber-attacks. The president mentioned, “With regards to democracy, AI has been used to meddle in elections, especially in Romania.” He further added, “In Latvia, we passed a law that requires AI to be labeled [to prevent disinformation].”
President of CNIL (French Data Protection Authority) Marie-Laure Denis also warned about the feasibility of carrying out cyber-attacks using complex code generated with AI. She mentioned that safeguards and trust in AI development are important for the long-term sustainability of this tech. However, not all representatives were on the same page regarding democracy. For instance, Pakistani lawyer and activist Nighat Dad asked, “Are our exchanges at this roundtable democratic? Are we talking about the whole world or just the democracies of the Global North?”
Latvian President Reinkevics remarked that it is unclear where AI is currently headed. He said that companies want to reap AI’s benefits. However, countries have different priorities, and global AI agreement is still a long way ahead.
Regarding safety, Ursula von der Leyen, EU president stated, “AI needs the confidence of the people and has to be safe. And actually this is the purpose of the AI Act to provide for one single set of safe rules across the European Union’s 450 million people.”
Dario Amodei identifies three AI policy areas requiring urgent focus
Representatives from AI company Anthropic also attended the summit. Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei mentioned that that three areas of AI policy require immediate attention. These include democratic leadership, security risks, and economic disruption. He mentioned that democratic countries need to stay ahead of authoritarian regimes in the AI race. He added that AI supply chains including “chips semiconductor manufacturing equipment” and cybersecurity should be paid more attention to maintain democratic leadership.
AI comes with diverse risks and threats that are difficult to ignore. These include autonomous AI systems and bioweapons outside human control. Regarding economic disruptions, Amodei noted that AI will cause disruptions not only in the tech industry but “could represent the largest change to the global labor market in human history.”
Moreover, the CEO referred to the AI Action Summit as a “missed opportunity” and urged the industry to move with greater clarity and speed.
The US & UK refuse to sign the summit declaration while other countries react positively
The two-day summit ended with a declaration outlining the rules for development in AI, and countries were asked to sign a pledge. Six major points were outlined in the declaration:
- Reducing digital divides by promoting accessible AI.
- Promoting open, transparent, trustworthy, safe, secure, ethical, and inclusive AI in line with international frameworks.
- Ensuring that AI innovation thrives by reducing market concentration.
- Encouraging AI deployment for sustainable growth while impacting the labor markets positively.
- Sustainable AI for the planet and people.
- Reinforcement of international cooperation and coordination.
However, the US and UK did not sign the statement. On the other hand, Canada, India, France, and China became the key countries that signed the declaration. Signatories were asked to commit to the “safe and trustworthy” development of AI. Hence, a refusal reflects a clear difference between the approaches of the European Union and the US.
Regarding the refusal, a UK government spokesperson said, “We felt the declaration didn’t provide enough practical clarity on global governance, nor sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge AI poses to it.”
Also, US vice-president JD Vance warned against taking an approach that prevents developers from “taking the risks necessary to advance.” JD Vance mentioned that the US is focusing on its own action plan, which ensures benefits for all Americans while avoiding an “overly precautionary regulatory regime.” He ignored the current regulations in the EU and invited other nations to collaborate with the US. He said, “follow that model if it makes sense for your nations.”
It’s clear that the US VC is not in favor of excessive AI regulation or censorship. He said that pro-growth policies and deregulation are the way forward and added that American AI “will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship.” He further painted a picture regarding the Trump administration’s plans. The current administration is aiming to maintain a “pro-worker growth path” for artificial intelligence in the US so that it can become a tool for job creation.
In the end, Vance briefly mentioned the importance of security and light regulation. However, he insisted that focus matters more, and in the current scenario, it is more important to seize the opportunity for the “well-being of our nations and their peoples.”
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/paris-summit-world-leaders-discuss-ai-policy/