The world’s leading artificial intelligence companies pledged at the start of a mini summit on AI to develop the technology safely, including pulling the plug if they can’t rein in the most extreme risks. World leaders are expected to hammer out further agreements on artificial intelligence as they gathered virtually Tuesday to discuss AI’s potential risks but also ways to promote its benefits and innovation.
Quick Read
- AI Summit in Seoul: Major AI companies, including Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Microsoft, commit to developing artificial intelligence safely at the AI Seoul Summit.
- Safety Pledges: Companies agree to implement safety frameworks, maintain accountability, and ensure public transparency concerning AI risks.
- Extreme Measures: In cases of severe, intolerable risks, companies pledge to activate a “kill switch” on AI development or deployment to prevent potential dangers.
- Global Participation: The summit, co-hosted by South Korea and the U.K., includes virtual discussions among world leaders, industry executives, and international organization heads, focusing on AI’s risks and benefits.
- Expanded Agenda: Unlike previous summits, discussions also cover AI innovation and inclusivity, aiming for a balanced perspective on AI’s potential contributions to humanity.
- Global Regulatory Efforts: The summit occurs amid worldwide efforts to regulate AI, with recent initiatives including the U.N. resolution on safe AI use and ongoing international talks.
The Associated Press has the story:
Seoul AI summit opens with Google, Meta, OpenAI pledging to develop AI safely
Newslooks- SEOUL, South Korea (AP) —
The world’s leading artificial intelligence companies pledged at the start of a mini summit on AI to develop the technology safely, including pulling the plug if they can’t rein in the most extreme risks. World leaders are expected to hammer out further agreements on artificial intelligence as they gathered virtually Tuesday to discuss AI’s potential risks but also ways to promote its benefits and innovation.
The AI Seoul Summit is a low-key follow-up to November’s high-profile AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom, where participating countries agreed to work together to contain the potentially “catastrophic” risks posed by breakneck advances in AI.
The two-day meeting — co-hosted by the South Korean and U.K. governments — also comes as major tech companies like Meta, OpenAI and Google roll out the latest versions of their AI models.
They’re among 16 AI companies that made voluntary commitments to AI safety as the talks got underway, according to a British government announcement. The companies, which also include Amazon, Microsoft, France’s Mistral AI, China’s Zhipu.ai, and G42 of the United Arab Emirates, vowed to ensure safety of their most cutting edge AI models with promises of accountable governance and public transparency.
The pledge includes publishing safety frameworks setting out how they will measure risks of these models. In extreme cases where risks are severe and “intolerable,” AI companies will have to hit the kill switch and stop developing or deploying their models and systems if they can’t mitigate the risks.
Since the U.K. meeting last year, the AI industry has “increasingly focused on the most pressing concerns, including mis- and dis- information, data security, bias and keeping humans in the loop,” said Aiden Gomez CEO of Cohere, one of the AI companies that signed the pact. “It is essential that we continue to consider all possible risks, while prioritizing our efforts on those most likely to create problems if not properly addressed.”
On Tuesday evening, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are to meet other world leaders, industry bosses and heads of international organizations for a virtual conference. The online summit will be followed by an in-person meeting of digital ministers, experts and others on Wednesday, according to organizers.
While the U.K. meeting centered on AI safety issues, the agenda for this week’s gathering was expanded to include “innovation and inclusivity,” Wang Yun-jong, a deputy director of national security in South Korea, told reporters Monday.
Wang said participants will subsequently “discuss not only the risks posed by AI but also its positive aspects and how it can contribute to humanity in a balanced manner.”
The AI agreement will include the outcomes of discussions on safety, innovation and inclusivity, according to Park Sang-wook, senior presidential adviser for science and technology for President Yoon.
Governments around the world have been scrambling to formulate regulations for AI even as the technology makes rapid advances and is poised to transform many aspects of daily life, from education and the workplace to copyrights and privacy. There are concerns that advances in AI could take away jobs, trick people and spread disinformation.
This week’s meeting is just one of a slew of efforts to draw up AI guardrails. The U.N. General Assembly has approved its first resolution on the safe use of AI systems, while the U.S. and China recent held their first high-level talks on AI and the European Union’s world-first AI Act is set to take effect later this year.
