The Inevitable Rise Of Artificial Intelligence

A thousand tech industry names have publicly called for a six-month halt to training new AI systems to give the industry time to assess the risks.

AI seems to have reached an inflexion point where it is finally powerful enough to really capture the public imagination. Politicians are keen to capitalise on the potential of these systems to drive economic growth and the low carbon economy, and ordinary citizens are signing up to see what they can do with the technology.

However, as these systems get more powerful and widespread, the risks associated with them also become more significant. The Future of Life Institute issued its open letter calling for a halt because it is concerned that the risks are not yet understood and so cannot yet be properly controlled.

Can You Put The Genie Back In The Bottle?

We can bet that any moratorium would not be completely respected. Chinese and potentially even American innovators - who are the origin of the main advances in this area - would find it difficult to accept a long period of potential commercial disadvantage.

The developers do seem to be working hard to identify and address risks, but the conflicts of interests in ‘marking their own homework’ are clear.

The technical report accompanying GPT-4 addresses risks ranging from hallucinations (where the system provides inaccurate information), to the proliferation of weapons, to privacy and cybersecurity. However, the descriptions of the risks are limited, as is the information provided about how the system was developed. There is, for example, nothing about future energy requirements for AI and the potential impact of that on international climate change commitments.

How Much Do We Know About The Risks Of AI?

We know that the dataset used to train the system is likely to contain personal data that may not have been lawfully obtained as well as information that is the intellectual property of rights owners who have not provided permission. We know that people are only now starting to experiment with the ways the tools can be used - and without understanding that, it’s simply impossible to assess all the risks.

The debate reinforces the need for governments to take up the subject more quickly.

The EU is making progress on the AI Act, which aims to regulate the use of certain types of AI. However, there is no date for it to be transposed into national laws yet and other countries, including the UK, have no equivalent.

Laws like the AI Act provide ‘guard rails’ to help developers consider wider social and economic risks, but the problems envisaged by the signatories to the open letter go far beyond what can realistically be worked through in a six month development moratorium.

Regulators, politicians and think tanks need to consider what model of society we want to implement and how AI will be incorporated into that. The rise of AI is inevitable, but it requires systemic changes including retraining millions of adults and finding roles for those whose work opportunities are displaced by technology.

Camilla Winlo is Head of Data Privacy at Gemserv

Nicolas Cambolin Global Director of Data Intelligence at Talan

You Might Also Read: 

Leveraging Data Privacy For Artificial Intelligence:

___________________________________________________________________________________________

If you like this website and use the comprehensive 6,500-plus service supplier Directory, you can get unrestricted access, including the exclusive in-depth Directors Report series, by signing up for a Premium Subscription.

  • Individual £5 per month or £50 per year. Sign Up
  • Multi-User, Corporate & Library Accounts Available on Request

Cyber Security Intelligence: Captured Organised & Accessible


 

 

 

« Understanding The Incident Response Lifecycle
The Cybersecurity Threat To Railways »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

BackupVault

BackupVault

BackupVault is a leading provider of automatic cloud backup and critical data protection against ransomware, insider attacks and hackers for businesses and organisations worldwide.

IT Governance

IT Governance

IT Governance is a leading global provider of information security solutions. Download our free guide and find out how ISO 27001 can help protect your organisation's information.

Resecurity

Resecurity

Resecurity is a cybersecurity company that delivers a unified platform for endpoint protection, risk management, and cyber threat intelligence.

Alvacomm

Alvacomm

Alvacomm offers holistic VIP cybersecurity services, providing comprehensive protection against cyber threats. Our solutions include risk assessment, threat detection, incident response.

IX Associates

IX Associates

IX Associates is a UK based IT Integration business specialising in risk, compliance, eDefence, and network security solutions.

Zscaler

Zscaler

Zscaler enables the world’s leading organizations to securely transform their networks and applications for a mobile and cloud first world.

Ammune.ai

Ammune.ai

Ammune.ai (formerly L7 Defense) helps organizations to protect their infrastructure, applications, customers, employees, and partners against the growing risk of API-borne attacks.

Precise Biometrics

Precise Biometrics

Precise Biometrics develop and sell fingerprint software for convenient and secure authentication of people’s identity in mobile devices, smart cards and other products with fingerprint sensors.

Secon Cyber Security

Secon Cyber Security

Secon Cyber Security is an Advanced Managed Security Services Provider with long standing experience of providing cyber security solutions to customers ranging from small to large enterprises.

Ingenio Global

Ingenio Global

Ingenio is a specialist recruitment business for SaaS companies. Our purpose is to source exceptional talent in areas including cyber security for leading SaaS companies in the UK and Ireland.

Blockchain Solutions

Blockchain Solutions

Blockchain Solutions Limited is a technological One Stop Solution provider, for Blockchain technology.

Conatix

Conatix

Conatix was formed to apply recent advances in AI and other fields of technology to insider fraud, one of the most intractable problems in cybersecurity.

ProofID

ProofID

ProofID is a specialist provider of Identity Access Management (IAM) solutions. We focus on the solving the complex needs of the modern enterprise.

TestArmy

TestArmy

TestArmy CyberForces provide you with a broad spectrum of cybersecurity services to test every aspect of your IT infrastructure security and software development process.

Sparrow

Sparrow

Sparrow specializes in application security testing solutions to cope with new technology trends such as cloud, mobile, and DevSecOps.

Kobalt.io

Kobalt.io

Kobalt are bringing the monitoring capabilities of enterprise-class security teams to smaller organizations.

QEDIT

QEDIT

QEDIT is leading the standardization of Zero-Knowledge Proofs through the ZKProof.org Workshops, and builds production-grade ZKP systems for blockchain.

AccessIT Group

AccessIT Group

AccessIT Group is a specialized cybersecurity solutions provider offering a full range of advanced security services.

Quantum Dice

Quantum Dice

Quantum Dice is an award-winning venture-backed spinout from Oxford University’s world-renowned quantum optics laboratory.

Aikido Security

Aikido Security

Aikido is the no-nonsense security platform for developers. Secure your code, cloud, and runtime in one central system. Find and fix vulnerabilities automatically.