Global Courant 2023-05-03 19:20:56
Artificial intelligence (AI) has provoked a range of responses, including one from Microsoft’s chief economist, Michael Schwarz.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel in Geneva, Schwarz said: “I am convinced that AI will be used by bad actors, and yes, it will do real damage,” he continued, “it can do a lot of damage in the hands of spammers with elections and so on.”
He went on to say AI should be regulated and lawmakers should be careful and wait for technology to cause “real harm”.
In recent months, Microsoft made a multi-billion dollar multi-year bet on ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
Schwarz said: “Once we see real damage, we have to ask ourselves the simple question, ‘Can we manage that in a way where the good things prevented by this regulation are less important?’ The principles should be that the benefits of regulation to our society should outweigh the costs to our society.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with the CEOs of Microsoft, Google and OpenAI on Thursday to discuss ways to reduce the risk of harm from AI technologies.
Schwarz said that Microsoft is working on putting up guardrails to help mitigate the potential danger posed by AI tools.
In March, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote, “The era of AI has begun.”
