BERLIN: The European Union needs to speed up work on artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, Commission vice president Margrethe Vestager said Monday, as policymakers wrestle with the risks from the emergent technology.
“There is no time to waste” on passing rules to control the use of AI, Vestager told reporters in Berlin.
The European Commission put forward regulatory proposals in early 2021, but progress on the legislation has been slow.
EU member states set out their views on the Commission’s ideas at the end of 2022, while MEPs will put the matter to an initial vote in committee in Strasbourg on Thursday.
The Parliament’s opinion should be confirmed in a plenary vote in June, before negotiations between the EU’s institutions begin in earnest.
“What I think is important is speed. We really need our legislation to get in place,” Vestager said.
“I really hope that we can have the first meeting of the political negotiation before summer so that we can end it this year.”
The arrival of new AI tools such as ChatGPT has reinvigorated the debate over regulation and spurred a response from governments.
ChatGPT can generate essays, poems and conversations from the briefest of prompts, and has proved itself capable of passing some tough exams.
But it has been dogged by concerns that its abilities could lead to widespread cheating in schools or supercharge disinformation on the web.
The chatbot can only function if it is trained on vast datasets, raising concerns about where its maker OpenAI gets its data and how that information is handled.
Italy temporarily banned the programme in March over allegations its data-gathering broke privacy laws, while French and German regulators have opened their own probes.
“When it comes to artificial intelligence like ChatGPT it will also be caught by the (EU’s) AI Act,” Vestager said.
The proposed legislation is “future proof” because it targets the uses of AI, not the specific technologies behind it, Vestager said.
The EU’s draft rules outlaw certain uses such as “generalised surveillance”, while companies must authorise themselves for other “high-risk” uses, such as facial recognition.
Meta-owned WhatsApp is bringing yet another update for users, allowing them to share screens during a video call, WaBetaInfo reported Saturday.
According to the WhatsApp updates tracking website, the instant messaging app is releasing a screen-sharing feature as well as a new placement for tabs within the bottom navigation bar.
The new feature is available to some beta testers for now but will be rolled out to more people over the coming days.
— WaBetaInfo
Earlier, WhatsApp brought changes to voice and video calls by improving them. It also introduced changes for the missed calls in terms of colour for the Android version of the app.
Once you click the new icon in the call control view, you will be able to share your screen with the other individual. Your screen will be recorded and shared.
Old versions of Android might not be able to use this feature. Moreover, this will not work in large group calls as well as those using outdated versions of the app.
Users will be able to have full control as they can stop sharing the screen anytime they want to. Also, this feature will only enable with your consent.
Moreover, users might see minor changes in the navigation bar at the bottom with tabs being rearranged in a certain manner. “Specifically, some users may now see the tabs within the bottom navigation bar in this order: Chats, Calls, Communities, and Status,” said WhatsApp watcher.
Amid the fast development of artificial intelligence (AI) and experts coming forth voicing their concern over the pace of technology, Microsoft President Brad Smith said Thursday that he was worried about deep fakes, realistic-looking but false content.
During his speech in Washington on the topic of how AI should be regulated he called for steps to ensure that people know when a photo or video is real and when it is generated by AI, potentially for ill objects.
The experts have been concerned about the technology that boosted after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT — a human-like AI-powered chatbot capable of writing human responses.
Smith said: “We’re going have to address the issues around deep fakes. We’re going to have to address in particular what we worry about most foreign cyber influence operations, the kinds of activities that are already taking place by the Russian government, the Chinese, the Iranians.”
This photo shows a Microsoft logo displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. — AFP/File
“We need to take steps to protect against the alteration of legitimate content with an intent to deceive or defraud people through the use of AI.”
Smith also called for licensing for the most critical forms of AI with “obligations to protect the security, physical security, cybersecurity, national security.”
“We will need a new generation of export controls, at least the evolution of the export controls we have, to ensure that these models are not stolen or not used in ways that would violate the country’s export control requirements,” he underlined.
This photo shows screens displaying the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT. — AFP/File
Legislators in Washington have been struggling to find solutions regarding how to best regulate the as the tech giants like Microsoft and Google have jumped into incorporating the technology into their products.
CEO Open AI Sam Altman last week told a Senate panel in his first appearance before Congress that the use of AI interfering with election integrity is a “significant area of concern”, adding that it needs regulation.
Altman, whose OpenAI start-up is backed by Microsoft, also called for global cooperation on AI and incentives for safety compliance.
Smith further argued also in his blog post, Thursday, that people “needed to be held accountable for any problems caused by AI,” urging lawmakers to ensure that “safety brakes be put on AI used to control the electric grid, water supply and other critical infrastructure so that humans remain in control.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a keynote address announcing ChatGPT integration for Bing at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, on February 7, 2023. — AFP
He also suggested the use of a “Know Your Customer”-style system for developers of powerful AI models to “keep tabs on how their technology is used and to inform the public of what content AI is creating so they can identify faked videos.”
Back in March, hundreds of researchers, CEOs and tech leaders including Tesla owner Elon Musk signed an open letter that voiced concerns over the “profound risks” AI technology poses to society and humanity.
“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity,” said the open letter.
“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.
Meta-owned instant messaging app, WhatsApp, is working on a redesigned settings page that includes three new shortcuts, WABetainfo reported on Friday.
The under-development feature — through which users will be able to experiment with an improved experience while navigating through the app settings — will be available to users in the future update of the app.
A screengrab of the future interface. — WABetainfo
The preview, shared by WABetainfo, showed that the enhanced interface presents three new shortcuts: profile, privacy, and contacts.
“WhatsApp plans to introduce the starred message shortcut — which is already available on WhatsApp for iOS — within the app settings,” the WhatsApp news tracker reported.
WhatsApp will reorganise the settings section to make the options easier to access. “It is worth noting that WhatsApp also plans to introduce a new shortcut within the chat list to open the app settings quickly,” it was learnt.
When this shortcut will be enabled in the future, users will be able to experiment with the new interface of the app settings.
WABetainfo also reported that the instant messaging app is working on a feature to set up a WhatsApp username.
“WhatsApp is working on a username feature, allowing users to choose unique usernames for their accounts,” the news tracker stated, adding that this feature is currently in development and not yet visible.
A screengrab of the future interface. — WABetainfo
With the ability to choose a username, WhatsApp users will have the opportunity to add another layer of privacy to their accounts.
“This means that instead of relying solely on phone numbers to identify contacts, users will be able to opt for a unique and memorable username: by allowing users to choose usernames, WhatsApp may offer users the ability to reach other people by entering a username within the app, without knowing their phone numbers,” WABetainfo said.
Although this feature is still in development, it is expected that it may allow users to communicate with businesses privately, thus safeguarding their phone numbers, or perhaps their usage will be even more extensive, allowing private communication with any user.