How to Win the AI War – Tablet Magazine
Virtually everything that everyone has been saying about AI has been misleading or wrong. This is not surprising. The processes of artificial intelligence and its digital workhorse, machine learning, can be mysteriously opaque even to its most experienced practitioners, let alone its most ignorant critics.
But when the public debate about any new technology starts to get out of control and move in dangerous directions, it s time to clue the public and politicians in on what s really happening and what s really at stake. In this case, it s essential to understand what a genuine national AI strategy should look like and why it s crucial for the U.S. to have one.
The current flawed paradigm reads like this: How can the government mitigate the risks and disruptive changes flowing from AI s commercial and private sector? The leading advocate for this position is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenSource AI, the company that set off the current furor with its ChatGPT application. When Altman appeared before the Senate on May 13, he warned: I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. He also offered a solution: We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.
In the same way that Altman volunteering for regulation allows him to use his influence over the process to set rules that he believes will favor his company, government is all too ready to cooperate. Government also sees an advantage in hyping the fear of AI and fitting it into the regulatory model as a way to maintain control over the industry. But given how few members of Congress understand the technology, their willingness to oversee a field that commercial companies founded and have led for more than two decades should be treated with caution.
Instead, we need a new paradigm for understanding and advancing AI one that will enable us to channel the coming changes to national ends. In particular, our AI policy needs to restore American technological, economic, and global leadership especially vis a vis China before it s too late.
It s a paradigm that uses public power to unleash the private sector, and transform the national landscape, to win the AI future.
Correctomundo. RTWT.