Politicans Try To Regulate What They Do Not Understand
The problem with politicians is they would rather destroy something new than allow it to grow. Whenever something new emerges, they want to regulate it, often killing the industry, at least in that area.
It is exactly what the Europeans are doing with artificial intelligence.
To start, politicians are some of the most clueless among us. Few have experience in the business world. They did not work in the industries they regulate. Instead, the majority are lawyers who have a complex believing they know it all.
The sad reality is they are typically so far removed from what is taking place, it is pathetic.
Another issue is they are driven by the need for more power. This means that if they allow something to flourish without regulation, others might realize they are not needed.
EU Regulation
The EU is working on being the first to regulate AI. Unfortunately, they are forcing things such as ChatGPT and general-purpose AI systems to comply with transparency obligations before they are put on the market.
While the regulation is still up in the air, it looks like they will have to provide documentation and revealing the summaries about the content used for training.
The problem is how do you define AI. When we look much of this technology, it is really just a look up program. It might sound like a human but it is not AI. Instead, it is really glorified search.
Yet according to the politicians, this is to be lumped in with any other "intelligence" created.
How can you comply if you are a writer of software?
Ultimately, this is likely to kill AI development in the EU. Of course, this is not without precedent.
Automobiles and Hedge Funds
The British killed themselves when it came to the Industrial Revolution. They were in the automobile game until the the Locomotive Act, which required self-propelled vehicles (automobiles) on public roads to be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn.
This pushed automobile production to the United States and Germany.
For its part, the United States is not without its flaws either. The entire hedge fund industry was the result of overregulation. The fact the SEC and CFTC are separate forced these funds offshore.
Basically, a financial transaction can be legal according to the CFTC yet have you facing criminal charges based upon SEC action. This puts market participants in a no win situation.
The solution to this was to set up hedge funds offshore which means none of the regulation established by the US government were applicable. Of course, this means a lot of additional headaches for the citizens who much set up a offshore corporation which invests in the fund.
With the actions of the EU, it is likely no serious AI development will take place there, just like the English lost the opportunity to be a major player in the automobile industry due to the Red Flag legislation.
Only the International Will Succeed
The governments of the world are mostly the same. While some are better than others, the key is to realize that smart people navigate around regulations by not establishing themselves where they are susceptible to what the governments are setting down.
It is vital to remember that governments never admit they were wrong. Politicians destroy industries, or at least send them off-shore, through their ignorance.
Much of this stems from the fact they do not understand what they are trying to regulate. When it comes to artificial intelligence, this is a complete joke. We see how clueless they are about cryptocurrency and now we are left to believe they are going to understand the models that are being created by the likes of Facebook and OpenAi.
Not a chance in the world.
There is a long history of what is taking place. HIstory has a way of repeating itself because himans tend to always act in the same manner.
With politicians, this is why actions taken during the Roman Empire are as applicable today. We seem to never learn.