Written by 09:00 AI, Unbelievable Views: [tptn_views]

UK Government Struggling to Regulate AI

The last year has seen an acceleration in the mass adoption, widespread use and increased disruption and uncertainty in numerous industries because of the growth in artificial intelligence.

Amid the explosion in the last year of chatbots, language learning models (LLMs) and content generators, the technology – already adopted to a certain extent by some sectors such as logistics – has unsettled the fields of education, media and finance even more.

Since the release of OpenAi, the UK government has come under increased pressure to initiate some sort of legislative and regulatory framework about how artificial intelligence is being employed.

What is the government doing?

At the minute, not very much. Some have accused UK politicians of dragging their feet and being reluctant to install any regulating framework around it.

Professor Stuart Russell, a former adviser to the UK and US governments, told The Times “How do you maintain power over entities more powerful than you – forever?” he asked. “The stakes couldn’t be higher: if we don’t control our own civilisation, we have no say in whether we continue to exist.”

Sir Lawrence Freedman, a war studies professor, gave a talk to the House of Lords raising concerns about the government’s apathy around the technology, and how it may be used in the future

University lecturers and educators have already expressed their concerns about the technology being able to write plausible sounding answers and responses to questions, which will reduce the need for critical engagement with subjects.

With tech leaders calling for AI to be regulated, and chief scientists resigning about the way big tech is employing AI in their systems and platforms, there is not only concern around the technology, but what the government is doing to control it.

While many governments, including the UK, are planning regulations, while others such as France and Italy are investigating possible invasions of privacy.

However, governments must still act with urgency and keep up with the pace that the technology is moving at if they are to understand and regulate it.

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