Source: AFP
South Korea and Britain kick off a major international summit on artificial intelligence in Seoul this week, where governments plan to press tech companies over AI security.
The meeting follows the inaugural global summit on AI security at Bletchley Park in Britain last year, where dozens of countries voiced their fears to leading AI companies about the risks posed by their technology.
Security is back on the agenda at the Seoul AI Summit starting on Tuesday, with representatives from leading AI companies including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Google DeepMind, French AI firm Mistral, Microsoft and Anthropic expected.
“As with any new technology, artificial intelligence brings new risks, including deliberate misuse by those who want to harm us,” South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a joint op-ed on Monday.
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“However, with new models coming out almost every week, we are still learning where these risks may arise,” they said in the article, published by South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo and British newspaper i.
ChatGPT’s stratospheric success soon after its launch in 2022 sparked a gold rush in genetic artificial intelligence, with tech companies around the world pouring billions of dollars into developing their own models.
The artificial intelligence models being created can generate text, photos, audio and even video from simple commands, and its proponents have heralded them as a breakthrough that will improve life and business around the world.
But critics, rights activists and governments have warned that it can be abused in a wide variety of situations, including manipulating voters through fake news or so-called “deepfake” images and videos of politicians.
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Dramatic changes
Many have called for international standards to govern the development and use of artificial intelligence.
“When we meet with companies at the AI Seoul Summit, we will ask them to do more to demonstrate how they assess and respond to risk within their organizations,” Yoon and Sunak wrote.
“We will also take the next steps to shape global standards that will avoid a race to the bottom.”
The Seoul summit comes days after OpenAI confirmed it disbanded a team dedicated to mitigating the long-term risks of advanced artificial intelligence.
The two-day summit will be partly virtual, with a mix of closed-door meetings and some open to the public in Seoul.
But a group of six South Korean civil society organizations, including the prominent People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, criticized summit organizers for not including more developing nations.
“It would be beneficial to discuss international standards for artificial intelligence in a more open forum where all countries and diverse stakeholders from around the world can participate equally, rather than in an elite club of a few developed countries,” they said in a joint statement on Monday .
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In addition to security, the summit will discuss how governments can help promote innovation, including AI research in universities.
Participants will also consider ways to ensure that technology is open to all and can help tackle issues such as climate change and poverty.
“It’s only been six months since world leaders met at Bletchley, but even in that short time, the artificial intelligence landscape has changed dramatically,” said Yoon and Sunak.
“The pace of change will continue to accelerate, so our work must accelerate as well.”
France will host the next AI Security Summit.
Source: AFP