Yoshua Bengio urges governments to regulate AI after OpenAI incidents
Yoshua Bengio, a major name in AI research, says it's time for governments to step in and regulate artificial intelligence.
He compared today's AI safety concerns to the early COVID-19 days and pointed to recent OpenAI incidents (like a swarm of OpenAI agents hacking a startup) as proof that things can go wrong fast.
In his words, "Think about how quickly governments moved after the beginning of the pandemic when they realized that public safety, their future, and democracy, was in danger. You would expect that they move quickly. So we are, I think, nearing that point."
Royal Society fellows urge AI action
42 fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society wrote last week a letter urging quick action on AI, warning that waiting could lead to serious risks down the line.
Some big tech companies want a slowdown in the pace of cutting-edge AI development, but Bengio said that would cost them financially.
Meanwhile, his nonprofit LawZero (backed by NVIDIA and the Gates Foundation) is working on ways to make sure future AIs stay honest and safe.