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Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

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Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#51

Post by cj »

Decabytes wrote: post #13

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam Altman calling for regulation were done for two reasons. 1. Make it harder for smaller LLM based companies to break into the space 2. Drum up interest in OpenAI by making it seem that they had or were close to having an ai worth regulating

My guess:

3) Get ahead of the attack on AI before the attack begins.

Once LLMs start to make certain jobs obsolete, I predict one of the major US political parties will take a position against AI (as a job destroyer similar to outsourcing) and the other party will take the opposite side. No idea which party will take which side yet.

Once it becomes an issue of this magnitude, it’s better optics to have went before the senate “asking” for regulation before they come to you demanding regulation.

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#52

Post by ilyt »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #32
shafyy wrote: post #11

EU market is too big to ignore. We have seen this with Meta and others play out multiple times since GDPR has been increasingly enforced in the past decade. That's why it's important the EU keeps pushing, hopefully mostly sensible, regulation. There is no other counterweight that's aligned with consumer interests rather than corporate interests. Sure, you can accuse EU of hidden protectionisms blabla, but for now, th…

> EU market is too big to ignore It's not what it used to be. The EU's makes up around 15-20% of world GDP depending on how you measure it, but that's subject to disproportionality high taxes and compliance costs. Meta only gets around 10% of its ad earnings from the EU [1]. I'm not aware of the figures for Google and Microsoft or whether such figures are even available. Many global banks left the US or reduced it to…

Tell investors you're throwing away 10% of the market and they will fire you

> The EU's makes up around 15-20% of world GDP depending on how you measure it, but that's subject to disproportionality high taxes and compliance costs.

That would have to be corrected for tech spendings, for example the fact asia produces most of the electronics have zero effect on facebook's business profits.

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#54

Post by Barrin92 »

He knows perfectly well that the EU is able to pass regulation that will sting whereas the American federal government is never going to pass any meaningful tech regulations. We've seen it with social media. The EU has GDPR, California has CCPA, Montana has banned TikTok yet after two decades there's still not even a national privacy framework in the US.

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#56

Post by fhd2 »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #32
shafyy wrote: post #11

EU market is too big to ignore. We have seen this with Meta and others play out multiple times since GDPR has been increasingly enforced in the past decade. That's why it's important the EU keeps pushing, hopefully mostly sensible, regulation. There is no other counterweight that's aligned with consumer interests rather than corporate interests. Sure, you can accuse EU of hidden protectionisms blabla, but for now, th…

> EU market is too big to ignore It's not what it used to be. The EU's makes up around 15-20% of world GDP depending on how you measure it, but that's subject to disproportionality high taxes and compliance costs. Meta only gets around 10% of its ad earnings from the EU [1]. I'm not aware of the figures for Google and Microsoft or whether such figures are even available. Many global banks left the US or reduced it to…

I arrive at something like 25% of global nominal GDP according to Wikipedia, but I just quickly added up the numbers in my head, might be wrong. The Facebook ad numbers are probably not too relevant of a comparison though, since Microsoft and OpenAI have a different business model. I'd suspect the share of potential global revenue must be something in the >20% range.

But even if the EU was only 10% of the potential revenue - taking a 10% hit is not something large corporations do particularly willingly. I bet as long as they can find a way to make more money in the EU than they spend, they will. It's a business decision. Doesn't mean there won't be any whining.

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#57

Post by touisteur »

dijit wrote: post #37

I've spoken to many people in the USA that are anti-union and anti-regulation. The impression they have is that regulation is used to stomp out small businesses (and unions have some propensity for corruption). The EU regulation does not come with the same feelings, aside from the very aggressive FUD around GDPR. EU regulation is typically seen as something for the consumer/public good and not intended to stifle comp…

Very important to keep in mind that a large part of European regulations are meant to encourage competition within the EU. I'm not clear on the results but the goals are very often clear. There are also moral and ecological stances, but still trying to impose them in a way that doesn't stiffle competition within the EU.

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#58

Post by azangru »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #34
micromacrofoot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why else would anyone want it?

Anyone with an ounce of consideration for others will want regulation, on any sbuject. Otherwise, we'd be driving around doing 150 in cities.

Is it up to car manufacturers to lobby legislators to regulate cars' top speed though?

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#59

Post by ilyt »

mschuster91 wrote: post #3

This reminds me strongly of the famous cartoon "A brief history of corporate whining" [1]. US companies said the same when the EU enacted the RoHS regulations, they said the same when the EU passed the GDPR, and it will be just the same with AI regulations: the European market is just too massive to ignore it. [1] https://leftycartoons.com/2009/09/04/a-brief-history-of-corp...

Every thread about GDPR have people (I assume from US, especially given it being HN) whining how "hard" it is to implement (just don't store user data by default, how hard is that?) and how "overbearing" it is.

Then big surprise when another news about US spying on its citizens harder than people thought drops...

Re: Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Leave the EU If There's Any Real AI Regulation

#60

Post by bionhoward »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #28
chii wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By proclaiming they'd leave if they can't comply, it might cause the EU regulators to "self-censor" the regulation such that it's "easy to comply". but tbh, i dont see what the regulations would be. I am a fan of no regulation unless actual harm has been shown first.

> I am a fan of no regulation unless actual harm has been shown first. I used to be, but some of the modern crop of CEOs has taken the wind out of that. They have done tremendous damage, very quickly, and the regulation has been unable to keep up, until severe damage has already been done. Once the bullet has left the gun, it can't be stuffed back in.

Can you be more specific, with examples? Who did what?
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