In the middle of all the conversation of Ai -generative tools.
“The question is, who works for?” Tim Berners-Lee said Tuesday on a panel if not dedicated to robotics in Austin, Texas, conference.
Trust in AI systems such as Chatbots has been a focal point of SXSW discussions this year. This includes conversations around the Using synthetic data and ways to adjust the AI industry.
Berners-Lee's question has pushed the heart of the issue: a company can make a company reliable, accurate and unbiased. But because they are created by large corporations, there is always a question of whether they have the interests of the manufacturer or the user.
He made a comparison to doctors and lawyers. Your doctor may work a university, health care system or skill, but they have the duty to work with your best interests. Your lawyer also has a duty to do what your best interests are. But an AI assistant who helps you plan a vacation or order products? It can be trained to beat you toward improving its manufacturer's bottom line.
“I want AIS to work for me to make the options I want to make,” Berners-Lee said. “I don't like an AI I'm trying to sell to me.”
If you ask an Ai assistant to get you the best deal with something, does it get the best deal for you or the best deal for it? Sitting on a robotics expert panel, Berners-Lee challenged them to consider potential conflicts of interest.
“Always ask an AI, 'Who are you working for?'” He said. “Whose better interest do you pursue with your interests and your decisions?”
Lessons from the early web
Berners-Lee compared the current environment around artificial intelligence with dawn of the World Wide Web in the early '90s. Back then, companies like Microsoft and Netscape joined researchers and activists to form the World Wide Web Consortiumor W3C, to create the infrastructure of the open Internet.
“All of these companies build a web together, and we combine it,” he said.
That collaboration does not happen in the formation of AI today, Berners-Lee said. He sees companies competing and trying to fight each other in “Superintelligence“But there is no comparable association with W3C setting standards. He suggested AI developers create a similar group or such as Cern, the Intergovernmental Nuclear Research Laboratory in Europe.
“We have for nuclear physics,” Berners-Lee said. “We're not for Ai.”
