Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai allegedly called for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, he said that technology brings benefits but also “negative consequences.”
Pichai said, “There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this.”
He believes that the Government can play an important role in all this by starting drawing up their own approaches to regulations.
Pichai spoke on the same day when he was allegedly scheduled to meet the EU’s powerful competition regulator, Margrethe Vestager. Vestager, who in previous years hit the Silicon Valley giant with multibillion-dollar fines for reportedly abusing its market dominance to choke off competition is being reappointed for a second term last autumn. This time she has expanded powers over digital technology policies. She has now set her sights on artificial intelligence, and is now drawing up rules on its ethical use.
Pichai further added, “Sensible regulation must also take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms with social opportunities.” As he believes that it could incorporate existing standards like Europe’s tough General Data Protection Regulation instead of starting from scratch.
His comments simply hints on the potential downsides of artificial intelligence. He said that it is helpful and provides numerous benefits, he even cited an example its role in facial recognition technology, which can be used to find missing people.
In the year 2018, Google pledged not to use Artificial Intelligence in applications related to weapons, surveillance that simply violates international norms, or that works in ways going against human rights.
On Monday, Pichai was scheduled to meet Frans Timmermans, the EU commissioner who is overseeing the European Green Deal, (it is the bloc’s plan to fight the problem of climate change by making the continent carbon neutral by 2050), including through technology. Later he is scheduled to head to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week.