Related Publications [2]
Computational Power and AI: Comment Submission
Jun 22, 2023
Clip: Amy Kapczynski on an old idea getting new attention–an “FDA for AI”.
May 31, 2023
Related Press [16]
Stop talking about tomorrow’s AI doomsday when AI poses risks today
Letters written by tech-industry leaders are “essentially drawing boundaries around who counts as an expert in this conversation”, says Amba Kak, director of the AI Now Institute in New York City, which focuses on the social consequences of AI.
Nature
Jun 27, 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 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 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.
May 30, 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
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
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
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
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
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