LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – EU’s largest consumer group, the BEUC, weighed in with its own position: stop waiting and “launch urgent investigations into the risks of generative AI” right away.
European regulators are debating how AI will be regulated and ultimately used both commercially and noncommercially in the region.
āGenerative AI such as ChatGPT has opened up all kinds of possibilities for consumers, but there are serious concerns about how these systems might deceive, manipulate and harm people.
“They can also be used to spread disinformation, perpetuate existing biases which amplify discrimination, or be used for fraud,ā said Ursula Pachl, Deputy Director General of BEUC, in a statement.
āWe call on safety, data and consumer protection authorities to start investigations now and not wait idly for all kinds of consumer harm to have happened before they take action.
“These laws apply to all products and services, be they AI-powered or not and authorities must enforce them.ā
In line with a report released today by one of its members, Forbrukerrdet in Norway, the BEUC, which represents consumer organizations in 13 EU nations, made the call.
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The title of the Norwegian research, “Ghost in the Machine: Addressing the Consumer Harms of Generative AI,” makes clear the paper’s position: AI causes consumer problems and raises a number of troubling issues.
The debate in Europe has focused more directly on the effects of AI in areas like equitable service access, disinformation, and competitiveness, despite some technologists’ alarm bell-ringing about AI as a tool for human extinction.
It focuses on issues such as how “certain AI developers, including Big Tech companies,” have shielded systems from outside inspection, making it difficult to see how data is gathered or algorithms operate;
How some systems produce incorrect information as blithely as they do correct results, with users frequently being unaware of which it may be; AI that’s designed to deceive or manipulate users; and the bias issue based on the information that is fed into a particular AI.
The EU has long been interested in how AI would affect society, even if the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has undoubtedly raised awareness of AI and its possibilities.
Although those first initiatives were framed as foundational work to create “trust” in the technology, it stated debating questions of “risk” back in 2020.
By 2021, it was referring more specifically to “high risk” AI applications, and some 300 groups joined forces to support the argument that some forms of AI should be completely outlawed.
As the EU develops its regulations for the entire region, attitudes have become sharper and more critical over time.
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In the last week, Margarethe Vestager, the head of the EU’s competition policy, spoke especially about the dangers of bias brought by AI when used in crucial industries like the financial services industry, including mortgages and other loan applications.
Her remarks were made soon after the EU issued its formal AI Law, which proviso classifies AI applications into categories like unacceptable, high risk, and restricted danger based on a variety of criteria.
When the AI Law is put into effect, it will represent the first attempt anywhere in the world to try and codify some type of understanding and legal enforcement surrounding how AI is utilized in both business and non-commercial contexts.
The EU will then work with each EU member states to determine the final shape the law would take, with a focus on determining what (and who) would fall into its categories and what would not. This is the next stage of the process.
āIt is crucial that the EU makes this law as watertight as possible to protect consumers,ā said Pachl in her statement. āAll AI systems, including generative AI, need public scrutiny, and public authorities must reassert control over them.
“Lawmakers must require that the output from any generative AI system is safe, fair and transparent for consumers.ā
The BEUC is renowned for speaking up at crucial times and for rendering decisions that reflect the course that regulators ultimately choose.
For instance, it spoke out years before legal action was launched against the search and mobile industry giant Google in the ongoing antitrust probes.
However, that illustration also highlights another point: the discussion about AI, its effects, and the potential role of legislation in that discussion will undoubtedly last for a while.