Earlier this year, the European Union proposed a draft regulation to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens from certain applications of artificial intelligence. In the USA last month, the Biden administration launched a taskforce seeking to spur AI innovation. On the same day, China adopted its new Data Security Law, asserting a stronger role for the state in controlling the data that fuels AI.
These three approaches - rights, markets, sovereignty - highlight the competing priorities as governments grapple with how to reap the benefits of AI while minimising harm.
A cornucopia of proposals offers to fill the policy void. For the most part, however, the underlying problem is misconceived as being either too hard or too easy. Too hard, in that great effort has gone into generating ethical principles and frameworks that are unnecessary or irrelevant, since most essentially argue that AI should obey the law or be ‘good’. Too easy, in that it is...