A dozen European Union politicians have signed a letter calling for the “safe” development of artificial intelligence as Google’s CEO cautioned against releasing powerful AI tech before society has had a chance to adapt.
An April 16 open letter shared on Twitter by EU Parliament member Dragoș Tudorache called for a collaborative effort and a universal set of rules around the developmentof AI.
Tudorache, along with 11 other EU politicians named in the letter, asked the European Commission President Ursula von der leyen and United States President Joe Biden to convene a summit on AI and to agree on a set of governing principles for the development, control and deployment of the tech.“Recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have demonstrated that the speed of technological progress is faster and more unpredictable than policymakers around the world have anticipated,” the letter reads.
The letter further asks the principals of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), a forum for the U.S. and EU to coordinate approaches to economic and technology issues, to agree on a preliminary agenda for the proposed AI summit and for companies and countries worldwide to “strive for an ever-increasing sense of responsibility” while developing AI.
“Our message to industry, researchers, and decision-makers, in Europe and worldwide, is that the development of very powerful artificial intelligence demonstrates the need for attention and careful consideration. Together, we can steer history in the right direction,” the letter said.
CBS’Google CEO Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, also expressed caution around the rapid development of AI in an April 16 interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes, saying that society might need time to adapt to the new tech.