CMV: To protect its own future, AI companies should actively seek out regulations that ensure the ethical use of their technology

I have always been fascinated by the ethics of developing new technologies. The Internet for example, is an amazing tool that allows people to share ideas and connect in ways that would not have been possible without it. But it's also a major driver of addiction, tribalism, disinformation, and other negative behaviors. <br><br>What's really striking to me as I start to learn more about machine learning and artificial intelligence, is that it too will have a significant impact on our society. While perhaps not as transformative as the Internet was, AI is already being used in applications that impact our lives in all kinds of ways. <br><br>While much of the focus on AI's ethics is on the potential for a super-intelligent future (ie Skynet), and what the existential impacts of that could be, we are already seeing AI's potentially negative impacts on society. It is being used to generate deepfakes which could undermine the legitimacy of democracy. It is being used by governments to infiltrate and monitor dissident communications. It is being used to filter out applicants applying to jobs. And so on. <br><br>At first glance, it does not appear that the major companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have any real interest in regulating AI technology. But there is a degree of hypocrisy in the "self-regulation" that these companies have employed so far. OpenAI for example recently employed an executive order that bans government employees from being on its board. If it really wanted to be transparent and ethical, it would open source its code like the Linux Foundation does. <br><br>What that means for AI companies is rather than treating them like the "wild west", I truly believe that AI companies would benefit (both ethically and financially) from working with governments to assure that their technology is used in a way that is safe and respectful of the rights of consumers.