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
The EU’s approach to regulating AI
The EU's approach to regulating AI Host Marco Werman speaks with Sarah Myers West, the managing director of the AI Now Institute, a policy research institute in New York, to find out about the EU’s approach and what it bodes for other countries considering similar regulations.
To listen to the interview, head here.
May 15, 2023
Chuck Schumer’s effort to ‘get ahead of’ AI may already be falling behind
Myers West says she has been disappointed to see how much emphasis that effort appears to be placing on interventions like AI audits, which place the onus on what will inevitably be under-resourced third parties to police the technologies of multibillion-dollar tech giants. “That’s a fairly weak foundation from which to build from,” Myers West says.
Fast Company
May 12, 2023
Column: Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writers’ strike shows how to fight back
The AI Now Institute, a consortium of AI researchers and policy experts, recently published a report that concluded the AI industry is “foundationally reliant on resources that are owned and controlled by only a handful of big tech firms.” Its power is extremely concentrated in Silicon Valley, among giants such as Google and Meta, and that is where the economic benefits are all but certain to accrue.
LA Times
May 11, 2023
The Global Battle to Regulate AI is Just Beginning
The lobbying by Big Tech companies, including Alphabet and Microsoft, is something that lawmakers worldwide will need to be wary of, says Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute, another think tank. “I think we're seeing an emerging playbook for how they're trying to tilt the policy environment in their favor,” she says.
Wired
May 8, 2023
Prime moment for intervention in AI as power lies largely in the hands of big tech firms: Former AI adviser to US FTC
Last week, the White House summoned top tech leaders to discuss safeguards. CNA’s Steve Lai and Julie Yoo spoke to former AI adviser to the US Federal Trade Commission and current managing director of the AI Now Institute, Sarah Myers West, on what regulators need to do to shape the direction of generative AI and why it is critical for users to better understand this technology.
Channel News Asia
May 8, 2023
The Global Race to Regulate AI
“The national context in which the regulation is being deployed matters an awful lot,” said Myers West. “So to the extent that the [EU’s] AI Act is going to become a template for other countries to adopt, it’s also important to look at the constitutional protection, the rights, the democratic context of the nation employing the the laws, because particularly with this risk-based approach, it won’t necessarily port neatly into other kinds of jurisdictions.”
Foreign Policy
May 5, 2023
The Writers Strike Is Taking a Stand on AI
“It’s not so much about what AI is going to do, but what companies are going to use AI to justify,” says Myers West.
Time
May 4, 2023
Joe Biden Wants Hackers’ Help to Keep AI Chatbots in Check
We just can’t afford to confuse the right noises for enforceable regulation right now,” West says.
Wired
May 4, 2023
OpenAI is pursuing a new way to fight A.I. ‘hallucinations’
“It’s certainly welcome to see companies trying to tinker with the development of their systems to try and reduce these kinds of errors — I think what’s key is to interpret this as corporate research, in light of the many barriers that exist to deeper forms of accountability,” Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute, told CNBC.
CNBC
May 1, 2023
Experts say AI poses ‘extinction’ level of risk, as Congress seeks legislative response
Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West, two former FTC officials, said in a report published last month that the FTC has existing authority relating to antitrust and consumer harm to regulate the fast-growing artificial intelligence tech sector even without new legislation.
Roll Call
May 1, 2023
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