Prof. Yuval Noah Harari x Legislator KO Ju-Chun on 〈NEXUS〉
2024-10-03

hararixko 原始音檔: QmT8rmm1ZichLxVtJFREFzupUMBxK8tQgMTiPNKf8sykja

Legislator KO Ju-Chun pointed out Taiwan's slow progress in AI development and expressed concerns about the transparency of the government's "sovereign AI," calling for public participation. Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari emphasized that the AI revolution should not be a competition between good and evil, advocating for global cooperation to ensure safety and suggesting the creation of an international body to provide information.

  • How can we ensure the development of sovereign AI is transparent and involves public participation?
  • The rapid growth of U.S. social media has negatively impacted democracy.
  • There is a need to establish an international institution to share AI safety information.
  • Create an international body without regulatory power to provide AI information.

Ref. 「Harari x Audrey 2021

Picture of the author
Legislator KO Ju-Chun
Hello,
I'm legislator Ko.
I'm the only geek legislator
taking charge of tech
policymaking in Taiwan.
We are all fully aware that
China may develop dangerous AI
or authoritarian AI,
and Taiwan is kind of slow
in developing our own AI.
Recently,
our government may push
for a sovereign AI.
However,
without external oversight,
they only have
their self watching and make
sure it's safe by themselves.
So,
and also
they're possibly blocking
certain AI in the near future.
So I want to know that how can
we ensure a development
of sovereign AI is
transparent enough and have a public
involvement and
doesn't become another
authoritarian AI?
Picture of the author
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari
Mmm.
Yeah,
I think a key message about
the AI revolution is not to
think that,
you know,
it's a race between
bad guys and good guys.
If you,
there are dangers all over
the world that even
the people you think are
currently the good guys,
if they move too fast,
if they
move without any thought for
safety,
this could result in disaster.
Like you think about social media.
So you know,
the United States won
the race on social media.
United States developed
the most powerful social media
platforms more than
10 years ago.
Facebook and YouTube and.
Twitter,
long before we saw the
spread of Chinese social media
around the world like TikTok,
and
The result was catastrophic That
what really undermined
democracies all over the world,
including the United States,
were not Chinese
Social media platforms.
It was Western social media platforms.
So this I think is is a
lesson that we should we
should take to heart.
and,
on the other side There are at
least some areas of
potential cooperation,
Global cooperation also with
China also with other regimes,
because as I said before,
About certain
problems of AI safety,
like the problem of control,
The Chinese are as
worried as the Americans.
So,
you know if we If one side
finds a way,
a theoretical breakthrough,
or a technical breakthrough,
how to ensure control of AI,
this is something that should
be shared with everybody.
This
should not be a state secret only for our side,
because it
would be bad for
everybody if another country
produces
AI that goes out of
control.
Now I think what we most
need is an institution,
an international institution,
which is not necessarily
even a regulatory institution.
First of all,
it's an informative
institution that simply
tells people around the world,
in different countries,
and tells different
governments,
what is the current state of AI
development and what are
the potential dangers.
You know,
if you think about regulation as teeth,
we need eyes
before we have teeth.
Otherwise,
we don't know what to bite.
And at the present moment,
most people around the world,
and even most governments,
are dimly aware,
if at all,
of the true state of
development of AI
and of the dangers.
If you think about
the government,
I don't know,
of Indonesia,
or of Nigeria,
or of Argentina,
how are they supposed
to know what is the
cutting edge of AI
technology and what are
the potential threats?
Because this information is
mainly in the hands of a
few corporations
in basically just two countries,
the US and China,
and these governments.
And what we need is first
of all a trustworthy
international
institution that could
perhaps be established
and financed by
international agreement,
which has no teeth,
just eyes,
just you know,
enough resources to pay
for some of the best talent.
in the world
and to have cutting edge
technology
just to inform people around
the world what is happening,
what are the dangers.
and now let's
think about what are the
regulations we need.
Thank you.