AI needs superintelligent regulation

Powerful artificial intelligence systems can be of enormous benefit to society and help us tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. Machine learning models are already playing a significant role in diagnosing diseases, accelerating scientific research, boosting economic productivity and cutting energy usage by optimising electricity flows on power grids, for example. It would be a tragedy if such gains were jeopardised as a result of a backlash against the technology. But that danger is growing as abuses of AI technology multiply, in areas such as unfair discrimination, disinformation and fraud, as Geoffrey Hinton, one of the “godfathers of AI”, warned last month on resigning from Google. That makes it imperative that governments move fast to regulate the technology appropriately and proportionately.