Advanced G7 nations should adopt “risk-based” regulation on artificial intelligence (AI), their digital ministers said yesterday, as European lawmakers hurry to introduce an AI Act to enforce rules on emerging tools such as ChatGPT.
However, such regulation should also “preserve an open and enabling environment” for the development of AI technologies and be based on democratic values, G7 ministers said in a joint statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Japan.
While the ministers recognized that “policy instruments to achieve the common vision and goal of trustworthy AI may vary across G7 members,” the agreement sets a landmark for how major countries govern AI amid privacy concerns and security risks.
Photo: Reuters via Kyodo
“The conclusions of this G7 meeting show that we are definitely not alone in this,” European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said ahead of the agreement.
Governments have especially paid attention to the popularity of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI that has become the fastest-growing app in history since its November launch.
“We plan to convene future G7 discussions on generative AI, which could include topics such as governance, how to safeguard intellectual property rights including copyright, promote transparency, address disinformation” including information manipulation by foreign forces, the statement said.
EU lawmakers on Thursday reached a preliminary agreement on a new draft of its upcoming AI Act, including copyright protection measures for generative AI, following a call for world leaders to convene a summit to control such technology.
Vestager said the bloc “will have the political agreement this year” on the AI legislation, such as labeling obligations for AI-generated images or music, to address copyright and educational risks.
Japan, this year’s chair of G7, has taken an accommodative approach on AI developers, pledging support for public and industrial adoption of the technology.
Japan hoped to get the G7 “to agree on agile or flexible governance, rather than preemptive, catch-all regulation” over AI technology, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday ahead of the ministerial talks.
“Pausing [AI development] is not the right response. Innovation should keep developing, but within certain guardrails that democracies have to set,” French Minister for Digital Transition Jean-Noel Barrot said, adding that France would provide some exceptions to small AI developers under the upcoming EU regulation.
Besides intellectual property concerns, G7 countries recognized security risks.
“Generative AI ... produces fake news and disruptive solutions to the society if the data it’s based is fake,” Japanese Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono told a news conference after the agreement.
The top tech officials from the G7 — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, along with the EU — met in Takasaki, a city about 100km northwest of Tokyo, following meetings last month on energy and foreign policy.
Japan is scheduled to host a G7 summit in Hiroshima later this month, where Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is to discuss AI rules with world leaders.
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