Barrack Obama on AI: We should not put the genie back in the bottle despite deepfake threat

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Regulation of artificial intelligence has become a major pain point for governments worldwide. The EU passed the AI Act after months of deliberation. Yet, it faces criticism from major corporations, same with the AI executive order taken by the Biden administration, which was said not to do enough to ensure equality. Even the AI Safety Summit in the UK under PM Rishi Sunak was not able to reach a consensus on what exactly is the best way to regulate AI without crippling the enormous potential. Now, former US President Barrack Obama has shared his views as a lawman on how he thinks this tricky problem can be solved.

Obama gave an interview to Decoder, the video podcast by The Verge, where he delved deep into the regulatory side of AI, and why it is a tricky beast to tame. Obama also held the view that policymakers should be careful to not bring rules that are “anti-tech” as it will put the genie back in the bottle and the world will miss out on the opportunity of something that can change lives.

Obama was asked about the AI executive order and the new terms that were used in it such as red teaming, watermarking, and AI transparency, as the government was entering new waters. Obama likened the situation to 2015 when an “information revolution” was started by social media platforms, and lives were impacted at every stage.

Obama found that one of the biggest takeaways from that space was that incredible good can come out of it. But, there is a catch. “...We have to be maybe a little more intentional about how our democracies interact with what is primarily being generated out of the private sector. What rules of the road are we setting up, and how can we make sure that we maximize the good and maybe minimize some of the bad,”