AI regulation

Table of Links

Abstract and 1 Introduction

2. The threat posed by AI to all technical civilisations
3. Multiplanetary mitigating strategies and technology progression
4. Timescales and confrontation with the data
5. AI regulation
6. Conclusions, Declaration of competing interest, Acknowledgements, and References

5. AI regulation

The field of SETI aims not only to search for intelligent life beyond Earth but also holds up a mirror to humanity, encouraging us to reflect on our own technological progression and potential futures. By examining the possibilities of alien civilisations, SETI helps us contemplate the long-term sustainability of our own civilisation, the potential risks we face, and how we might navigate and overcome future challenges.

Presently, the AI we currently encounter in every-day life largely operates within human-established constraints and objectives. Nevertheless, progress is being made in creating systems that can augment and optimize various facets of their own development [57]. The next stage will see AI systems independently innovate and refine their own design without human intervention. The potential for AI to operate autonomously raises many ethical and moral quandaries but it is surely only a matter of time before this occurs. Tests are already being conducted in military settings, and the proliferation of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) by rogue nations or covert organisations is surely inevitable [58]. We stand on the brink of exponential growth in AI's evolution and its societal repercussions and implications. This pivotal shift is something that all biologically-based technical civilisations will encounter. Given that the pace of technological change is unparalleled in the history of science, it is probable that all technical civilisations will significantly miscalculate the profound effects that this shift will engender [21,26,36].

There can be little doubt that AI and in particular ASI present a massive challenge to the longevity of our technical civilisation and likely all technical civilisations that arise in the cosmos. This naturally leads us to the thorny matter of AI regulation and control. While industry stakeholders, policymakers, individual experts, and their governments already warn that regulation is necessary [27], establishing a regulatory framework that can be globally acceptable is going to be challenging. In the meantime, AI continues to progress. In particular, nations have diverse cultural, economic, and societal priorities, leading to varied perspectives on the governance of AI [59]. Geopolitical interests cannot be ignored – even if comprehensive regulations were adopted, some nations will be tempted to bend the rules. In addition, rapid advances in AI will likely outpace any agreed regulatory frameworks, raising concerns that the latter will always lag well behind new and unanticipated advances in the field.

Ensuring compliance and accountability in AI development and deployment also poses significant challenges. The decentralised nature of AI development, the enormous size of the global AI research community spread across almost every research domain will further complicate the oversight and enforcement of regulations. In short, regulation of this new technology is going to be very difficult, if not impossible to achieve. Without practical regulation, there is every reason to believe that AI could represent a major threat to the future course of not only our technical civilisation but all technical civilisations.