Benjamin Gillette/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, speaks at the Viva Technology conference in Paris on May 22, 2024.
London
CNN
—
Executives from Amazon and Meta told CNN this week that some concerns about artificial intelligence are overblown and that the European Union's sweeping new AI rules There is a risk of stifling innovation.
The EU gave the AI bill the final go-ahead on Tuesday, the same week that tech industry leaders gathered in Paris for the annual VivaTech conference.
This first-of-its-kind law will reshape how European companies and other organisations use AI in everything from medical decisions to policing. It will impose a blanket ban on using the technology in ways it deems “unacceptable”, such as social scoring.
The regulation imposes new disclosure obligations on large AI companies, requiring greater transparency around uses of AI deemed “high risk,” such as in education and employment.
For Yann LeCun, head of AI at Meta (META), the “big question” about the new law is: “Should AI research and development be regulated?”
“There are provisions in the EU AI law and various other laws that restrict research and development. I don't think that's a good idea,” he told CNN's Anna Stewart at the Paris event.
Widely regarded as one of the “godfathers of AI,” LeCun disagrees with concerns that AI may soon surpass human intelligence.
“I don't think it's close,” he said. “I don't think it's that dangerous, frankly, especially not today.”
AI systems may become even smarter in the future, but they will be designed with appropriate safeguards in place, he added.
“But figuring out how to make future superintelligent AI systems safe today is like asking 'how do we make jet transport safe' in 1925, when jet transport hadn't even been invented yet,” he said.
Amazon (AMZN) Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels reiterated concerns that AI regulation could stifle innovation in some areas.
When considering risks, regulators should take into account the application of new technologies. For example, medical and financial services have different uses. “That's what we're doing,” he told Stewart to summarise the meeting.
“There are a wide range of sectors where we think the risks are minimal and we should push for innovation,” he said. In other sectors, where mistakes could have a big impact on people's lives, the risks should be managed in a “sector-specific” way.
Vogels stressed that Amazon welcomes regulation and is aligned with regulators on its overall goals, but warned the EU not to over-regulate AI, citing the EU's flagship data privacy law, known as GDPR, which he described as a very “thick” book.
“Let's make sure that the regulatory requirements that we put in place can actually be implemented by all European companies, not just the largest ones,” he said.
“We need to make sure that innovation continues to happen and that it doesn't just come from outside Europe. Europe already has a long history of underinvestment in research and development,” he added.
