Paris summit: how to tame and promote AI?
An Artificial Intelligence Action Summit chaired by France and India will take place in Paris at the beginning of next week. The goal is to develop a common scientific basis, solutions and standards for AI to ensure that it serves progress and the common good. Europe's media examine the tensions and deficits in this rapidly advancing field.
The fastest will win the race
Europe should invest more in AI, advises Xavier Jaravel, professor at the London School of Economics, in a commentary in Les Echos:
“The AI revolution will be best mastered by those companies and countries that are able to introduce these technologies the fastest. This will enable them to increase their market share and protect jobs. The main risk is therefore not being 'replaced' by AI, but rather by a competitor that uses AI in the same country or abroad. However, European companies are spending just under 50 percent of what US companies are investing in the introduction of AI. Without an accelerated diffusion of AI in Europe, the productivity gap vis-à-vis the US will continue to widen.”
We need to be more critical
Angela Müller, managing director of the NGO Algorithm Watch Switzerland, calls for a more critical approach in a guest commentary for Tages-Anzeiger:
“As long as we unquestioningly adopt their monopolised technology and the narrative that we have to accept the environmental, social and economic costs of ever larger AI models with uncertain future benefits, AI will primarily serve its illustrious circle, but not humankind or the planet as a whole. ... We can only truly exploit the potential of this technology if we seriously address the challenges it poses. This includes focusing on the environmental footprint and the concentration of power behind large AI models, and thus enabling an innovative, sustainable and public interest-oriented AI ecosystem.”
Sustainable change of course needed
Marion Paradas, the French ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, explains in La Tribune de Genève the challenges that AI entails at the international level:
“Firstly, we need to ensure that as many people as possible have access to AI. ... Secondly, AI must make its full contribution to the fight against climate change. That said, it is currently pursuing a course that is not sustainable in energy terms. In response, an international and varied coalition of stakeholders for sustainable AI should be launched to intensify research into the environmental costs of AI, define new standards and increase green investments. Finally, we should work together to build an effective and inclusive AI governance system.”
Complementing or replacing our brains?
The debate over the use of AI has created two camps in the business world, Corriere della Sera explains:
“On the one hand, there is the conservative camp, which argues that in the long term AI is destined to replace human labour. This camp draws on the historical view which since the days of Luddism [the Luddites destroyed machines] has viewed technology as an obstacle to realising the full potential of humans in their social and professional activities. ... Alongside this pessimistic interpretation of technology there is the modernist camp, which is aware of the ethical and political implications of artificial intelligence but tends to interpret them from an evolutionist perspective.”
Copyrights shouldn't be given away for free
Estonia showcases the conflict over AI: its Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs has announced that it will make the content of public broadcasters and other media available to Meta's language AI for free so that it can train its Estonian language skills. This is the wrong approach, warns Mari-Liis Rüütsalu, CEO of Ekspress Media Group, on ERR Online:
“Firstly, journalistic content is intellectual property that is protected by copyright. The fact that ERR content is created using taxpayers' money does not mean that it can simply be given away for free to profit-oriented technology giants. ... Secondly, at a time when there are lawsuits in the US and other countries alleging copyright infringement by AI companies, the Estonian state is sending the opposite signal.”