Margrethe Vestager, tech director of the European Commission, proposed AI regulations. (Source: Wikimedia)

Founder of Open AI, EU Express Concerns on AI Development

Elon Musk, the mercurial founder of OpenAI, Tesla and Space X, tweeted on Monday night that he thinks OpenAI, his former company, should be more “open” and that advanced AI should be regulated, even at Tesla. When someone asked him who should do the regulating, governments or the United Nations, he typed “both.”

Musk’s comments reportedly were in reference to a major story on OpenAI that appeared in technologyreview.com, as reported by futurism.com. The story says that despite its formation as a nonprofit with transparency, it no longer operates that way.

“But three days at OpenAI’s office—and nearly three dozen interviews with past and current employees, collaborators, friends, and other experts in the field—suggest a different picture,” technologyreview.com wrote. “There is a misalignment between what the company publicly espouses and how it operates behind closed doors. Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressure for ever more funding to erode its founding ideals of transparency, openness, and collaboration. Many who work or worked for the company insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak or feared retaliation. Their accounts suggest that OpenAI, for all its noble aspirations, is obsessed with maintaining secrecy, protecting its image, and retaining the loyalty of its employees.”

Musk is certainly not the first to propose AI regulation, nor is he alone now in advocating it. Just this week, the European Union imposed new rules on AI, including an emphasis on transparency and oversight, according to a story on venturebeat.com.

On Wednesday, EU technology chief Margrethe Vestager will unveil a wide-ranging plan designed to bolster the region’s competitiveness. While transformative technologies such as AI have been labeled critical to economic survival, Europe is perceived as slipping behind the U.S., where development is being led by tech giants with deep pockets, and China, where the central government is leading the push.

The new rules, which were leaked in advance, appear to require human oversight and a regulatory framework that ensures its compliance with safety and anti-discrimination requirements.

According to ABC News, the regulations will oversee AI and data collection, temporarily ban facial recognition technology and create one market for data throughout the EU.

European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen has sought to confront “high-risk AI,” or its application in sectors like health care, policing, and transport since she took office in December, ABC News reported.

A story on Sciencemag.org identified self-driving cars as the EU’s top target for regulation, as the most high risk technology widely available. “Black box” AI systems that humans can’t interpret and medical devices are also of concern.

Proposed regulations will be reviewed and commented on by the public, the affected companies and lobbying groups in the next 12 weeks before laws are drafted. Facebook and Google are both concerned about the proposed regulations and are expected to lobby for their interests in Europe during that time.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) recently petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate AI to prevent discrimination, according to BloombergLaw.com.