The common ground between the two sides of the current AI ethics debate should be explored and developed. We all want safe AI that we can trust. We all want a better future. We all want AI that improves our security and help us. We can build on these common values as the White House did so successfully in the July 2023 Commitments. White House Obtains Commitments to Regulation of Generative AI from OpenAI, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta and Microsoft.

A concern of  businesses and scientists who would be regulated relates to who will be doing the regulating and concerns about competitive disadvantages. The military shares these concerns. It is a complex situation that defies quick, easy political solutions. The competing interests, security concerns and much more, are well explained by Scott Shapiro’s book, Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks (May 2023). We highly recommend this book by Shapiro, a Yale Professor in both Law and Philosophy, with a deep understanding of technology. We need lawyers like Scott to be part of any regulatory solution, ones who have both book learning and hands-on experience.

We are all concerned about the dangers of industry groups and governments getting it wrong. Most AI developers would prefer to regulate themselves and are already doing so. While we agree with that basic premise, we also recognize that some government and industry regulation is also inevitable and necessary. Perhaps an independent testing and certification organization will also be developed someday; a kind of Good Housekeeping of AI-Ethics compliance, so we do not have to take HAL’s word for it.

AI-Ethics.com is based on this philosophy. We are lawyers who want to assist, learn and listen; not take over the process from the people who are developing AI. We believe in a team approach where lawyers are just one small part of the picture. See the 2016 video below by Ralph Losey, the lawyer behind this initiative.

 

Information and Teamwork provided here is for educational purposes only. No legal services offered or provided. See Full Legal Disclaimer.