OpenAI’s CEO Goes on a Diplomatic Charm Offensive
Most focus on fears about what AI could potentially do in the future but ignore the here and now, said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute and a former senior advisor on AI to the Federal Trade Commission. She cited concerns about the “very real harms that are unfolding before us right now,” from the spread of misinformation to exacerbating inequality.
Foreign Policy
Jun 20, 2023
Congress is racing to regulate AI. Silicon Valley is eager to teach them how.
West said executives like Google’s Schmidt are fueling the perception that AI is too difficult for Congress to grasp. That, she said, is “a convenient narrative that positions accountability out of the hands of the people that the public has vested it in — and into the hands of the industry that is benefiting.”
Washington Post
Jun 17, 2023
The EU is leading the way on AI laws. The US is still playing catch-up
“The companies that are leading the charge in the rapid development of [AI] systems are the same tech companies that have been called before Congress for antitrust violations, for violations of existing law or informational harms over the past decade,” said Sarah Myers West, the managing director of the AI Now Institute, a research organization studying the societal impacts of the technology.
The Guardian
Jun 13, 2023
The AI apocalypse: Imminent risk or misdirection?
Discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) have quickly turned from the excited to the apocalyptic. Are warnings that AI could pose an existential threat valid, or do they distract from the real danger AI is already causing?
Al Jazeera
Jun 10, 2023
The Senate Is Getting a Crash Course on How to Regulate AI—From the AI Industry
“It’s such an irony seeing a posture about the concern of harm by people who are rapidly releasing into commercial use the system responsible for those very harms,” as Sarah Myers West, managing director of AI Now Institute, told the New York Times after Altman’s May testimony.
Vanity Fair
Jun 6, 2023
The Microsoft-Google AI war
“This technology does not have any of the complexity of human understanding, but it will affect us profoundly in the way that it’s rolled out into the world," Sarah Myers West says.
WBUR
Jun 6, 2023
The FTC’s biggest AI enforcement tool? Forcing companies to delete their algorithms
“It’s not OK to justify data collection just for the sake of product improvement when it’s a violation of privacy.”
CyberScoop
Jun 5, 2023
Does artificial intelligence pose the risk of human extinction?
Tech industry leaders issue a warning as governments consider how to regulate AI without stifling innovation.
Al Jazeera
Jun 1, 2023
The White House AI R&D Strategy Offers a Good Start – Here’s How to Make It Better
If complemented by strong enforcement measures, elements from the White House R&D Strategy could offer a powerful corrective to industry dominance in the field of artificial intelligence. But for this to be meaningful in practice, the White House must acknowledge that the national interest won’t be served by deepening industry capture in the field of artificial intelligence, but by applying sufficient friction to avert the harms caused by the use of these systems, and by making well-placed investments that serve the interest of the public, not of industry.
Tech Policy Press
May 30, 2023
AI risks leading humanity to ‘extinction,’ experts warn
Meredith Whittaker, president of the encrypted messaging app Signal and chief adviser to the AI Now Institute, a nonprofit group devoted to ethical AI practices, mocked the statement as tech leaders overpromising their product.
NBC News
May 30, 2023
Sam Altman sells superintelligent sunshine as protestors call for AGI pause
People like Altman “position accountability right out into the future,” Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now institute, told The Verge last week. Instead, says West, we should be talking about current known threats created by AI systems — from faulty predictive policing to racially biased facial recognition to the spread of misinformation.
The Verge
May 24, 2023
OpenAI’s Altman Wants International Body Akin To Nuclear Watchdog IAEA To Regulate AI
"It doesn't sound like the kind of hearing that's oriented around accountability," said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute.
IB Times
May 23, 2023
The Senate’s hearing on AI regulation was dangerously friendly
As West says, “That’s where the conversation needs to be headed if we’re going for any type of meaningful accountability in this industry.”
The Verge
May 19, 2023
Why AI’s diversity crisis matters, and how to tackle it
In a 2019 report from New York University’s AI Now Institute, researchers noted that more than 80% of AI professors were men. Furthermore, Black individuals made up just 2.5% of Google employees and 4% of those working at Facebook and Microsoft.
Nature
May 19, 2023
After OpenAI hearing, A.I. experts urge Congress to listen to more diverse voices on regulation
“This flavor of artificial intelligence that involves massive amounts of data and massive amounts of computational power to process it has structural dependencies on resources that only a few firms have access to,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of AI Now Institute. “Competition law is central to regulating generative AI and AI more broadly.”
Vox
May 16, 2023
Open AI’s Sam Altman urges AI regulation in Senate Hearing
“It’s such an irony seeing a posture about the concern of harms by people who are rapidly releasing into commercial use the system responsible for those very harms,” Ms. West said.
The New York Times
May 16, 2023
AI should be used to enhance music, says UK Music chief executive
Channel 4 spoke to Jamie Njoku-Goodwin – who’s chief executive of UK music and Sarah Myers West, who is Managing Director of the AI Now Institute.
Channel 4
May 16, 2023
Why use of AI is a major sticking point in the ongoing writers’ strike
“The WGA’s demands are a bellwether that workers don’t intend to stand for companies using AI to justify devaluation of their craft and expertise,” says Sarah Myers West at the AI Now Institute in New York. “The WGA is pointing out an important question – who is benefiting from the development and use of these systems, and who is harmed by them?”
New Scientist
May 15, 2023
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