With AI, we need both competition and safety

Overview:  

This article was written by Tom Wheeler and Blair Levin at Brookings.

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are investigating AI collaborations for potential antitrust violations due to concerns over market concentration and competition.
• AI safety should be a priority alongside competition, suggesting collaborations to set safety standards without disincentivizing competitive practices.

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Key Quotes:

• "Building the AI future around competition and safety should be a no-brainer."
• "AI may be new, but the responsibilities of AI companies to protect their users have been around for literally hundreds of years."

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What They Discuss:

• The potential of AI to surpass human cognitive abilities in the near future and the consequent risks involved.
• The importance of creating uniformly applicable safety standards to prevent a "race to the bottom."
• Examples of effective industry-government collaborations, such as the American Medical Association's standards for doctors and the FINRA’s regulations in the financial industry.
• The necessity for transparency and ongoing oversight in ensuring AI safety standards.
• Historical precedents like the Cybersecurity Social Contract, which balanced collaboration and compliance with antitrust laws.

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What They Recommend:

• Encourage collaboration between AI companies to establish and adhere to AI safety standards.
• Develop a model that evolves as technology advances and incentivizes companies to exceed baseline safety standards.
• Ensure transparency and oversight to enforce compliance and protect public welfare.
• Draw lessons from successful industry-government collaborations to create enforceable AI safety standards.
• Clarify government policy to support AI safety collaborations without impeding competition through an executive order or joint FTC/DOJ statement.

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Key Takeaways:

• AI development must balance safety and competition to protect public interests while fostering innovation.
• Collaboration on AI safety is necessary and can coexist with competitive practices, as evidenced by historical regulatory examples.
• The government needs to adopt a supervisory rather than a dictatorial role in enforcing AI safety standards.
• Clear policies and collaborative frameworks are essential to achieve safe and competitive AI markets.

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This is a brief overview of the article by Tom Wheeler and Blair Levin at Brookings. For complete insights, we recommend reading the full article.