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
The rise of AI will only make Big Tech more powerful, researchers warn
"If we want to make any meaningful reform in the tech industry, we need to start by confronting the concentration of power," Sarah Myers West, managing director of AI Now, told Insider.
Business Insider
Apr 25, 2023
Generative AI risks concentrating Big Tech’s power. Here’s how to stop it.
If regulators don’t act now, the generative AI boom will concentrate Big Tech’s power even further. That’s the central argument of a new report from research institute AI Now.
Apr 18, 2023
Opinion | Competition authorities need to move fast and break up AI
Unless regulators act, Big Tech’s dominance over the digital economy will be cemented
Financial Times
Apr 17, 2023
OpenAI’s chief scientist helped to create ChatGPT — while worrying about AI safety
But others say that focusing on how to control yet-to-arrive AI systems distracts from the real and present dangers of the technology. It “puts intervention way off on the horizon”, says Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute, a policy-research organization in New York City. Instead, she says, we need “to tackle near-term harms”, such as AI systems reinforcing biases in their training data, or potentially leaking private information.
Nature
Apr 13, 2023
Finally, a realistic roadmap for getting AI companies in check
In a new report, the AI Now Institute — a research center studying the social implications of artificial intelligence — offers a roadmap that specifies exactly which steps policymakers can take. It’s refreshingly pragmatic and actionable, thanks to the government experience of authors Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West.
Vox
Apr 12, 2023
The Technology 202: Former FTC advisors urge swift action to counteract ‘AI hype’
Authored by two former advisers to FTC Chair Lina Khan, Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West, the paper offers a glimpse into how key tech regulators may respond to Silicon Valley’s soaring interest in AI
The Washington Post
Apr 11, 2023
AI Isn’t Omnipotent. It’s Janky. – an interview with Amba Kak
Everybody’s talking about futuristic risks, the singularity, existential risk. They’re distracting from the fact that the thing that really scares these companies is regulation. Regulation today.
The Atlantic
Apr 3, 2023
500 Top Technologists and Elon Musk Demand Immediate Pause of Advanced AI Systems
"But here’s what’s key to understand about Chat GPT and other similar large language models: they’re not in any way actually reflecting the depth of understanding of human language—they’re mimicking its form.”
Gizmodo
Mar 29, 2023
Elon Musk and several other technologists call for a pause on training of AI systems.
“By focusing on hypothetical and long-term risks, it distracts from the regulation and enforcement we need in the here and now,” Myers West said.
NBC News
Mar 29, 2023
Google’s Bard AI chatbot has now been released to the public
“We should be concerned that the current hype around generative AI is prompting these companies to push their products into development really rapidly,” says Sarah Myers West at the AI Now Institute, a research centre in New York. “Now the companies are experimenting in the wild with them, versus really taking the time to mitigate potential risks prior to deployment.”
New Scientist
Mar 21, 2023
The Battle For AI Supremacy Got Super Intense This Week, Risks Be Damned
“There’s so much hysteria and hype around these faster and faster rollouts right now,” said Amba Kak, executive director of New York University’s AI Now Institute and a former senior adviser on AI to the Federal Trade Commission, “that I think we’re in danger of walking back a lot of the progress that has been made around responsible release practices and the need for regulatory oversight of these technologies.”
BuzzFeedNews
Mar 17, 2023
GPT-4: OpenAI says its AI has ‘human-level performance’ on tests
“If anything, OpenAI has provided even less detail with which to evaluate its new system,” says Sarah Myers West at the AI Now Institute, a research centre in New York City. “But what we’ve seen so far in the roll-out of generative AI is that these systems are prone to error […] so we should be wary of any claims that these issues are resolved.”
New Scientist
Mar 14, 2023
It’s way too late to stop TikTok
“These firms are optimizing for things that allow them to make money,” says West, “which is attention, your willingness to click on an advertisement, and your willingness to make a purchase.”
Fast Company
Mar 8, 2023
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