Governments around the world
are now trying to find a balance whereby they can assess and rein in
some of the potential negative consequences of AI without stifling
innovation.
Britain’s
competition regulator said on Thursday it would start examining the
impact of artificial intelligence on consumers, businesses and the
economy and whether new controls were needed on technologies such as
OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
While research on AI has been going on for years, the sudden
popularity of generative AI applications such as ChatGPT and Midjourney
has highlighted a technology that could upend the way businesses and
society operate.
Governments around the world are now trying to find a balance whereby
they can assess and rein in some of the potential negative consequences
of AI without stifling innovation.
Britain in March opted to split regulatory responsibility for AI between
those bodies that oversee human rights, health and safety, and
competition, rather than creating a new body dedicated to the
technology.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would start work
by seeking to understand how foundation models that use large amounts of
unlabelled data were developing, and assess how they could be used in
the future to complete multiple tasks.
CMA CEO Sarah Cardell said in a statement that AI had burst into the public consciousness and was developing at speed.
“It’s crucial that the potential benefits of this transformative
technology are readily accessible to UK businesses and consumers while
people remain protected from issues like false or misleading
information,” she said.
The review in Britain echoes investigations taking place around the world, from Beijing to Brussels and Washington.
The United States is looking at possible rules to regulate the
technology and digital ministers from the Group of Seven leading
economies agreed last month to adopt “risk-based” regulation on AI that
would also preserve an open environment for the development of such
technologies.
Italy, a G7 member, took ChatGPT offline last month to investigate
its potential breach of personal data rules. While Italy later lifted
the ban, the move inspired fellow European privacy regulators to launch
investigations.
Lawyer Verity Egerton-Doyle at Linklaters said the review would give
Britain’s competition regulator the chance to join the debate on AI
regulation, after it made headlines around the world last week when it
blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard.
“The EU’s Digital Markets Act that came fully into force this week does
not cover generative AI and the CMA no doubt sees this as an opportunity
to be leading the global debate on these issues – along with the U.S.
FTC which is already looking at the area,” she said.
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