Amid US tech war on Beijing, OpenAI CEO says China industry key player

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Jun 2023 13:27

Sam Altman calls for cooperation between world major powers to shape guidelines to ensure AI's safe use and implementation.

A ChatGPT logo is placed on a computer motherboard with a red tech component in this illustration taken on February 23, 2023. (Reuters)

China should be a vital player in structuring artificial intelligence AI safety guidelines, OpenAI Inc.’s chief Sam Altman said on Saturday, as the world is set on an irreversible path to integrate the technology into daily human lives.

Following the launch of Altman's ChatGPT in November, it quickly was adopted by tens of millions and has rapidly advanced beyond predictions by top experts in the industry.

“With the emergence of the increasingly powerful AI systems, the stakes for global cooperation have never been higher,” Altman said in a video-link address to a Beijing AI conference.

Amid the global struggle between powers, mainly China and the US, to gain tech superiority and establish an upper hand in the industry, Altman said cooperation between the two rivals is more important than ever to ensure a safer environment to invest in and implement AI technologies.

As the United States has adopted a hostile approach toward China's growing overall tech capabilities, including banning its allies from exporting semiconductors to the world's largest chip market, Altman voiced the need to end the tech war in order to overcome common challenges that might impact the whole world.

“China has some of the best AI talent in the world and fundamentally, given the difficulties in solving alignment for advanced AI systems, this requires the best minds from around the world,” Altman said in the event hosted by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence.

The Chinese academy, which is supported by the country's Ministry of Science and Technology and government, has been named by Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith as one of the three pioneers in AI innovation.

While China became the first country in the world to introduce several AI regulations to protect consumers and manage the technology's risk, followed by the European Union, the United States has so far refrained from adopting such laws, raising skepticism over its ability to contain AI's threats, most importantly keeping in-check American tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Apple.

The lack of US laws to monitor the use of artificial intelligence has forced Europe and China into imposing heavy restrictions on US-based companies and establishing safety standards for their [US firms] accession to their markets.

Bad actors and AI

In March, Marcus, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Andrew Yang, and more than 1,000 artificial intelligence experts, researchers, and backers joined a call for an immediate pause on the creation of “giant” AIs for at least six months.

In May, US media reported that Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist nicknamed "the godfather of artificial intelligence," left Google to speak out against the technology's hazards.

The New York Times quoted Hinton, who developed core technology for AI systems, as saying that advances in the subject presented "profound risks to society and humanity."

The AI frontrunner warned that rivalry among digital behemoths was causing corporations to reveal new AI technology at dangerously fast rates, putting employees at risk and spreading disinformation.

"It's hard to see how you can prevent bad actors from using it for bad things," he told NYT.

In addition, he cautioned about the possibility of AI-generated false information proliferating, stressing that the typical individual "will not be able to know what is true anymore."