News

Global leaders commit to pre-deployment AI safety testing

AI Now Institute executive director Amba Kak, one of three civil society representatives at the summit table, praised pre-deployment testing commitments, but warned, "We are at risk of further entrenching the dominance of a handful of private actors over our economy and our social institutions."

U.K.’s AI Safety Summit Ends With Limited, but Meaningful, Progress

“There has been a complete industry capture of this conversation, and in many ways this summit reflects that,” says Amba Kak, the executive director of the AI Now Institute, a research group.

U.K.’s AI Safety Summit Ends With Limited, but Meaningful, Progress

“There has been a complete industry capture of this conversation, and in many ways this summit reflects that,” says Amba Kak, the executive director of the AI Now Institute, a research group. “The context to all of this is that we’re seeing a further concentration of power in the tech industry and, within that, a handful of actors. And if we let industry set the tone on AI policy, it’s not enough to say we want regulation—because we’re going to see regulation that further entrenches industry interests.”

AI Now Joins Civil Society Groups In Statement Calling For Regulation To Protect the Public

Biden signs executive order to oversee and invest in AI

“It’s great to see the White House set the tone on the issues that matter most to the public: labor, civil rights, protecting privacy, promoting competition,” Myers West said by text message. “This underscores you can’t deal with the future risks of AI without adequately dealing with the present.” 

Transcript: House Hearing on Safeguarding Data and Innovation

Amba Kak, executive director at AI Now Institute, advised the Committee to stay the course in prioritizing data privacy, consumer protection, and competition frameworks to govern and regulate AI effectively.

US House subcommittee dives into privacy, AI legislative recommendations

“We’re seeing new privacy threats emerge from AI systems; we talked about the future threats and how we don’t know where AI is going to go, but we absolutely do know what harms they’re already causing,” Kak said. “Unless we have rules of the road, we’re going to end up in a situation where this kind of state of play against consumers is entrenched.”

AI Now Managing Director Sarah Myers West Gives Remarks Before Heads of Agency, International Competition Network

Congress scrambles to craft AI privacy rules as industry races ahead

Kak said there is a chance now for lawmakers and regulators to take action before AI systems are “already entrenched in a particular trajectory.”

How AI reduces the world to sterotypes

“Essentially what this is doing is flattening descriptions of, say, ‘an Indian person’ or ‘a Nigerian house’ into particular stereotypes which could be viewed in a negative light,” Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute, a U.S.-based policy research organization, told Rest of World. Even stereotypes that are not inherently negative, she said, are still stereotypes: They reflect a particular value judgment, and a winnowing of diversity.

AI and Industrial Policy: Challenging the Current Paradigm

Do We Need an FDA for AI?: A Rapid Expert Deliberation

How Big Tech is co-opting the rising stars of artificial intelligence

“To build AI at any kind of meaningful scale, any developer is going to have core dependencies on resources that are largely concentrated in only a few firms,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director at the AI Now Institute, which researches the effects of AI on society. “There really isn’t a path out of it.”

Trust-busters come for AI’s building blocks

“Right now, compute seems like a more concrete input to regulate,” said Vipra, who co-authored a “Computational Power and AI” report released last week by the AI Now Institute, a New York-based think tank focused on the technology’s social implications.

How Big Tech is co-opting the rising stars of artificial intelligence

“To build AI at any kind of meaningful scale, any developer is going to have core dependencies on resources that are largely concentrated in only a few firms,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director at the AI Now Institute, which researches the effects of AI on society. “There really isn’t a path out of it.”

Amazon’s Partnership With Anthropic Shows Size Matters in the AI Industry

Vipra says that Anthropic, which prides itself on being particularly safety-conscious, will struggle to avoid being influenced by Amazon. “The announcement says it's all about safety—it's pitched as expanding access to safe AI products," she says. "But it really shows that productization has taken over.”

Tech CEOs Met With Congress To Discuss The Future Of AI Regulation

Sarah Myers West and Brian Ray join AirTalk host Larry Mantle to talk about the future of AI policy.

Musk, Zuckerberg Lead Parade of Tech Titans to Senate AI Event

“There’s been quite a lot of skepticism around whose views are represented and whether the concerns of the public are adequately represented here,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute, a policy research group.