Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI are four of the seven companies that have signed commitments to AI safeguards at the White House’s request. It comes as concerns about how fast AI technology is developing and being deployed have grown. Credo AI Founder and CEO Navrina Singh tells Yahoo Finance Live “the innovation in artificial intelligence has sort of scaled very rapidly” and if AI systems are “not managed appropriately” it “could actually result in massive risk to humanity, to countries, to companies.”
Video Transcript
– All right, guys, switching gears. Artificial intelligence maintaining its status as the top buzz term this earnings season. This comes after seven big tech companies signed on to commit to safeguards in the industry at the White House’s request. Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai, had this to say about plans for AI safety in the company’s earnings call last night.
SUNDAR PICHAI: We are making sure we develop and deploy AI technology responsibly so that everyone can benefit. Last week, we signed on to joint commitments with other leading AI companies at the White House, building on the principles that have guided our work for many years.
– So joining us now, we’ve got Navrina Singh, who is the Credo AI founder and CEO. Great to have you here with us this morning. When you think of a commitment like this as talked about by a few of the tech CEOs and heard there from Sundar Pichai, what comes next in terms of not just saying we’re committed to this. But also making sure that, I don’t know, there’s enforcement of it or there’s some governing body that makes sure that all of these different companies are acting within the terms that they’ve signed on to?
NAVRINA SINGH: Thank you so much for having me this morning, Brad. At Credo AI, we are making sure that AI is built not only responsibly but is deployed safely across all the applications. And we do so by providing an AI governance software that is used across global 2000 SMEs and startups to ensure that we are managing, monitoring, and mitigating AI risks. So we’re very excited to see these commitments from some of the top foundation model providers.
But as you said, I think all eyes are on what’s next. And a lot can go wrong if not done right. As an example, there’s a commitment from the Biden Harris administration around an executive order, which is going to be tied very closely to these commitments. So right now, there is a lot of motion in the administration that we are very excited and encouraged by. However, what is part of that executive order is what’s going to matter.
The second thing is how are we going to measure these commitments? And how these companies are upholding themselves to those commitments is the next thing that we are very carefully watching, because that’s where the rubber meets the road.
– And what is the history in this department? Not on the part of governments but on the part of corporations when it comes to obviously, this AI focus is new, but other new technologies. Do they have a good track record?
NAVRINA SINGH: Yeah. So Julie, it’s interesting, focus is actually not new. But right now, what’s happening is that there is a renewed focus on generative AI, and there is a race to see who is going to win and control the narrative. So in terms of what we can learn from the history, we’ve seen similar situations with GDPR privacy as a key example. And then one of the core things there was that the companies who came out on the top were the companies who actually not only invested in it but actually made sure that privacy was central to their business.
So I think a lot is yet to be seen responsibility and safety and how these commitments are being actually acted on by these large AI providers.
– Why was something in the form of a commitment like this not put forward earlier? I mean, we were just speaking with Brent Thill about why for Google, they don’t have to talk about ramping up their investment, and their expenses aren’t skyrocketing higher like some other businesses because they’ve been investing in it for so long. If you were to ask IBM, they’ve been deploying AI and advertising it for the better part of two decades now since I was in high school.
So you think about the efforts towards AI that have been out there. And now all of a sudden, it’s different because of generative AI. So why wasn’t this the case before?
NAVRINA SINGH: Yeah, absolutely. The innovation in artificial intelligence has sort of scaled very rapidly. And we are seeing that with generative AI, especially the foundation models, there is rising concern around the emergent properties of these artificial intelligence systems, which if not managed appropriately could actually result in massive risk to humanity, to countries, to companies.
But I think let’s pay attention to the two core narratives that’s happening. One is most of these companies are recognizing that generative AI is their next Trojan Horse in the business. And if that is the case, as we heard from Brent previously, most of the companies are plowing ahead. And since they are plowing ahead, they want to control the narrative. And when you’re trying to control the narrative, it becomes really critical to own the entire spectrum of what from products to safety looks like.
But the second thing is these emergent capabilities of these AI systems if left unchecked could really have massive consequences. So the reasons we are seeing these voluntary commitments increase focus on regulation is because now the multi-stakeholder ecosystem is coming together to make sure that we have guardrails in place not only for business success, but also making sure that the consumers get the benefits of this powerful technology.
– Navrina, thank you so much. Navrina Singh is Credo AI founder and CEO. Appreciate it.
