Breaking News

Lawmakers seek rules for artificial intelligence | Local News … – The Daily News of Newburyport

BOSTON — Artificial intelligence tools are being used by companies to produce a range of documents from term papers to home mortgages, but the technology has raised concerns about plagiarism, misinformation, racism and other harms.As such, Beacon Hill lawmakers are pushing for new regulations to prevent the emerging machine-learning technology from being abused.One proposal, filed by state Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, would require large artificial intelligence technology companies such as the online chatbot ChatGPT to register with the state Attorney General’s Office and disclose information about their algorithms.
It would also require AI companies to conduct regular risk assessments to identify potential societal harms, and set “reasonable” security measures to prevent the technology from being used to discriminate against minorities and other protected classes.Other safeguards would require companies to get consent from users before utilizing their information and take steps to detect plagiarism with the use of digital watermarks.Finegold said AI technology is going to have a “huge impact” on people’s lives, but there are no federal or state regulations governing its use.“This is like the early days of Facebook when we had no idea how powerful it would be,” he said. “We’re not against this technology, but we want to get ahead of it. We have to have guardrails around its use.”Finegold and his legislative staff used ChatGPT to partially write the legislation, which if approved would be the first law in the state — if not the nation — drafted by artificial intelligence.The bill contains a disclaimer, added by the chatbot: “This act has been drafted with the help of ChatGPT and any errors or inaccuracies in the bill should not be attributed to the language model but rather to its human authors.”

ChatGPT, which was created by San Francisco-based OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research firm co-founded by Elon Musk, allows users to enter themes, prompts and guidelines into the AI system which comes up with a response as if a human wrote it.On its website, the company says the ChatGPT bot is a “safe and useful” AI system that interacts in a “conversational way” with users, making it possible to “answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”Since its emergence, the AI platform has raised concerns that students can use it to plagiarize term papers and do their homework.New York City recently banned the use of ChatGDT in public schools amid concerns that students will use it to cheat.But Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said concerns about regulated use of AI technology go far deeper than just worries about students cheating on their exams.“These tools could be used in situations that are potentially life altering,” she said. “There are companies that have been using this technology for years to determine whether or not rent an apartment to someone, sell them insurance, or offer them a mortgage for a new home.”The ACLU is backing a proposal filed by Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, and Rep. Sean Garballey, D-Arlington, which calls for setting up a state commission to look at how AI is being used by the state government. The move, if approved, could lead to new regulations for the industry.“We need to get a full picture of how this technology is being used now,” Crockford said. “We need to know if the government is using AI to make decisions such as arresting someone, determining if they qualify for state benefits, or if a child should be taken away from their family.”Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at [email protected].

Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMikgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdidXJ5cG9ydG5ld3MuY29tL25ld3MvbG9jYWxfbmV3cy9sYXdtYWtlcnMtc2Vlay1ydWxlcy1mb3ItYXJ0aWZpY2lhbC1pbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2UvYXJ0aWNsZV9lYzM4NjY4ZS1hMGJhLTExZWQtODU2ZS01NzZhNmRlNGU3MjMuaHRtbNIBAA?oc=5