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Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

bbc.com

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Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#82
A restriction on computation and processing of information seems like a restriction on speech, expression, and thought. The list named in this article is just bizarre. For example it mentions that the following would be covered by the proposed policy:

> those designed or used in a manner that manipulates human behaviour, opinions or decisions ...causing a person to behave, form an opinion or take a decision to their detriment

Can't all of marketing, politics, and activism be constructed to fall under this broad statement? It feels to me like this unfairly allows only certain means to achieving the same ends, which ends up favoring certain segments of society at the expense of others. As an example, what makes shaping political opinions using AI inappropriate but shaping it via disruptive protesting appropriate? A person who few responsibilities and enough time to spend protesting is allowed to influence society, and someone who wants to do the same through a different means that makes more sense for them isn't permitted to do so? Similarly, credit worthiness and crime risk assessment are plainly logical ways for individuals, corporations, and governments to contain risks, incentivize the correct behavior, and make smart decisions for themselves. Getting rid of credit scoring is equivalent to income redistribution, since less risky individuals will be forced to subsidize others.

I don't think blanket regulation like this is the answer. The answer lies in ensuring healthy markets with sufficient competition (enforcing anti-trust law), in relying on federalism so that local governments can decide which technologies they want to use or not use, and in privacy controls for users to retain control of their data. Not in restricting math.

Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is more like banning the production of chlorine gas because someone might put it in an artillery shell --- never mind all the other useful things you can do with chlorine gas. If you want to regulate externalities, regulate externalities: don't ban technology itself.

> don't ban technology itself The EU isn't planning to ban underlying AI technologies, but instead to control its use in applications such as credit worthiness assessment

...which is basically banning people from measuring risk for themselves and deciding how to react to that risk themselves. How is this not authoritarian?

Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#84
We will have to face everything everybody thinks up. Legislation is whistling in the dark (pissing in the wind; closing the barn door...). Its too easy to create and deploy these things. Anybody who finds a reason to do so, will.

It will take social changes of some kind, to adapt to this new reality. Not draconian laws.

Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#85
These issues should solved by making problematic AI-use in breach of individual rights (e.g. privacy), rather than regulating the technology itself (with govt. exceptions) – which increases the power-imbalance between the state and the citizen.

Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#86
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who decides when that "should" condition is met? Over the past few years, I've seen far too many activists react to algorithms that notice true but politically inconvenient things by trying to shut down the algorithms, to pull wool over our eyes, to continue the illusion that things are other than what they are. Why should we keep doing that? I have zero faith in the ability of activists or states to decide when…

Not 100% sure what the parent is talking about, but my first thought is the predictive policing algorithms used in some jurisdictions to set bail and make parole decisions. My hazy understanding of the controversy is that these algorithms have "correctly" deduced that people of color are more likely to reoffend, thus they set bail higher or refuse release on parole disproportionately. At one fairly low level this alg…

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Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#87
post #72
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speak for yourself. I take AI over EU politicians any day of the week.

You can't be serious. EU leadership has always been a bit weak, with a lot of compromises, and not a hard stance on foreign policy, but to prefer an unknown oracle? The current state of AI would even have it overfitted on a small relevant corpus padded with arbitrary other material. How can you expect that to produce better government?

Perhaps OP meant "I take AI computer scientists over EU politicians"?

Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the draft https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZaBPsfor_aHKNeeyXxk9uJfTru7...

Thanks! 81 pages and no executive summary?!?! I'm interested to read it, but this is likely to have the same effect as sleeping pills.

Well, just run it thru an AI summarizer )

Re: Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government (ab)use of AI is is of course a serious threat. But I’d say big corporations abuse of AI is even worse. Assuming we are talking about a democratic state, at least there are some checks and balances on governments whereas people cannot elect a FAANG CEO or go to a ‘.gov’ website to read a transcript of board meetings. Edit: I am by no means advocating for government’s use of AI in any form.

A business can't lock you in a prison cell. I'd argue that the checks and balances at this point are little more than a mirage. Ruling by fiat is becoming more common, accountability less so. Government use of AI is far more menacing to me than a business using it.

> Government use of AI is far more menacing to me than a business using it.

I think both are equally menacing. The problem with business usage is that we're "trusting" them to be good stewards of that capability.

There's not much preventing a business from abusing such power in a covert anti-competitive anti-consumer fashion, or worse, selling access to that power to the highest bidder (as a service!).

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