AI investigated in UK over fear of domination

The UK plans to review the artificial intelligence (AI) market to ensure its benefits are available to everyone and no single company dominates.

Research by competition watchdogs looks at the software behind chatbots like ChatGPT.

The industry faces scrutiny over the pace of developing technology that mimics human behavior.

The rapid adoption of AI has raised concerns about unemployment, privacy and the potential for misleading information to spread.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive Officer of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said the so-called underlying model, such as the software behind ChatGPT, “will transform the way businesses compete and drive real economic growth. ‘ said it was possible.

But she said the potential benefit was important to “protect people from problems such as false or misleading information, while making it easily accessible to UK businesses and consumers”.

The move comes days after Jeffrey Hinton, widely known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, quit his job, raising risks due to developments in the field that allow technology to create images and text. warned about. human.

Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of advertising firms WPP and S4, told the BBC that AI was an “industrial revolution” and “another major shift in technology, a rival, even more so than the iPhone and similar developments. It can be important,” he said.

The digital advertising industry has already been affected, with companies using AI to “hyper-personalize” consumer-facing advertising.

“Obviously it also raises all sorts of regulatory issues,” Sir Martin told Today’s programme.

Two companies, Microsoft, which owns ChatGPT, and Google, which launched a rival chatbot called Bard, currently dominate the AI ​​space, he added.

Sir Martin said the CMA has shown its willingness to stop tech companies from gaining too much power. For example, Microsoft’s thwarting of plans to buy British gaming giant Activision Blizzard last week sparked an outcry from tech giants.

The US competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, is also calling for stricter regulation of AI.

” [UK’s] Regulators say big is bad,” said Lord Martin. “But the cost of development [AI] Technology is so huge that it hangs in a dilemma… Limiting it limits progress. “

Tools like Bard and ChatGPT let you write essays, do computer coding, and even converse like humans, but some warn they could end up stealing hundreds of millions of jobs. .

Hinton told the BBC that some of the dangers of AI chatbots are “very scary” and could quickly overtake the level of information held by the human brain.

“For now, as far as I know, they’re not smarter than us. But I think they might be soon.”

In March, a leading figure in artificial intelligence called for a moratorium for at least six months amid concerns about the threat posed by powerful AI systems.

The CMA said the development of AI has raised several other issues, including safety. Safety; Privacy; Intellectual Property and Copyright. and human rights.

Watchdog said it is looking specifically at its impact on competition, with the aim of creating a set of “guiding principles” to protect consumers as AI develops.

The heads of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are scheduled to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to discuss issues surrounding AI.

Reuters reported that the invitation to the companies included President Joe Biden’s “expectation that companies like yours must ensure the safety of their products before releasing them to the public.”