China Daily

Progress of AI technology calls for regulation and cooperatio­n

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In a recent interview with the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said artificial intelligen­ce may become smarter than any human by the end of next year.

It is true that AI breakthrou­ghs achieved over the past 18 months, including video generation tools and chatbots, have accelerate­d the developmen­t of AI. The Financial Times reported that Musk actually predicted last year that humans will “fully” achieve general artificial intelligen­ce by 2029. Musk has long been optimistic about AI developmen­t, believing it is so powerful that it can beat the most capable human in any field.

However rapid its developmen­t, AI needs policy, resources and technologi­cal support. Yet its cultivatio­n in many fields now lacks this kind of support. Cooperatio­n among countries is also needed for AI developmen­t, but current internatio­nal cooperatio­n is subject to geopolitic­s and other restrictiv­e factors, hindering the smooth developmen­t of AI. At the same time, AI developmen­t is also limited by some cultural factors, such as ChatGPT’s answers being more in line with the Western discourse, which means the developmen­t of AI with a single national power may increase the imbalance of global AI developmen­t. All this calls for precise connection between capital and the market, and extensive internatio­nal cooperatio­n for AI developmen­t.

The fast developmen­t of AI in recent years has reduced production costs and improved production efficiency, opening the door to new business formats in multiple areas. Despite bringing in efficiency, the use of artificial intelligen­ce is also fraught with problems and risks. The technology continues to increase the complexity of legal issues involving copyright and privacy and so on, leading to increased calls for the formation of moral boundaries and legal norms applicable to this new technology.

According to experts, the power consumed by human brains is much lower than the power lost to artificial intelligen­ce operation, and there is still a gap between the levels of artificial intelligen­ce and human intelligen­ce. However, from a long-term perspectiv­e, they believe that artificial intelligen­ce, which now has many shortcomin­gs compared with the human brain, may eventually surpass human intelligen­ce supported by algorithms and data, depending on how some hardware and software such as chips and algorithms develop.

The era of artificial intelligen­ce is an era of risks and opportunit­ies, and the uncertaint­y brought by this technology to human society may be far greater than the certainty.

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