Department of Commerce Could Be the First US Entity To Broadly Regulate an Aspect of AI (qz.com) 51
Dave Gershgorn and Max de Haldevang, writing for Quartz: Artificial intelligence technology has the capability to be the most impactful software advance in history and the US government has no idea how to properly regulate it. The US does know that it doesn't want other countries using its own AI against it. A new proposal published this week by the Department of Commerce lists wide areas of AI software [PDF] that could potentially require a license to sell to certain countries. These categories are as broad as "computer vision" and "natural language processing." It also lists military-specific products like adaptive camouflage and surveillance technology.
The small number of countries these regulations would target includes a big name in AI: China. Donald Trump, who has placed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as part of a simmering trade war, has long railed against China's alleged theft of intellectual property. This proposal looks like a warning from US officials, just as Chinese president Xi Jinping aims to boost AI in his own country. "This is intended to be a shot across the bow, directed specifically at Beijing, in an attempt to flex their muscles on just how broad these restrictions could be," says R. David Edelman, a former adviser to president Barack Obama who leads research on technology and public policy issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The small number of countries these regulations would target includes a big name in AI: China. Donald Trump, who has placed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as part of a simmering trade war, has long railed against China's alleged theft of intellectual property. This proposal looks like a warning from US officials, just as Chinese president Xi Jinping aims to boost AI in his own country. "This is intended to be a shot across the bow, directed specifically at Beijing, in an attempt to flex their muscles on just how broad these restrictions could be," says R. David Edelman, a former adviser to president Barack Obama who leads research on technology and public policy issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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On Facebook, Twitter or Reddit, nobody would ever hurt your feelings.
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Real AI (Score:2)
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If you look at human brain architecture through fMRI and diffusion tensor analysis, it's the same architecture as a supercomputer. Neural bundles carry information to and from the body into the brain. There are various data flow pipelines to process audio, vision (what and where), touch (temperature, pressure, motion), position and movement. Something like around 1800 cortical units that actually interlock with each other, do particularly processing from one type to another (image->name, name->sound,
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as in it's what we would classify as intelligent in the same way we might consider an animal intelligent
I don't think that's a useful standard. The government does not prohibit selling any kind of animal due to its intelligence, for instance. General purpose weak intelligence (such as in animals) isn't nearly as dangerous as highly intelligent in a narrow field.
remember ITAR? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Apparently the US government didn't want to get into meddling with banning textbooks of higher learning. That would have gone over well.
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export regulations worked so well with crypto...
That was almost a complete fiasco. It hobbled US academia and US based software with export of fully functional US software effectively banned putting us at a big disadvantage. A lot of open source software projects moved overseas as the US didn't ban imports of that technology and it was just easier to host overseas.
Vague (Score:4, Insightful)
> broad as "computer vision" and "natural language processing."
Can they be any more vague?
What do they mean by 'technologies'? Do they mean finished products? Or code available on GitHub? What if the GitHub code is not "sold" ? Do they mean training data sets? Or specific trained neural nets that can be loaded into compatible hardware (or software) to run it and recognize things?
Computer Vision or Speech Recognition (not 'natural language processing') are basic tech, like microprocessors, or fuel injectors. Like not selling them any sheet metal which could be used to make missiles used against us, instead of using it to make dish washers.
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Which is the much more difficulter problem? Speech Recognition or Natural Language Processing?
Spelling, obviously.
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The threat of AI is so Overrated. (Score:2, Interesting)
AI isn't very smart, its only redeeming value, is it is relentlessness in its calculations. While we as humans can only work on a problem for a few minutes a computer can sit there for years working out a problem, and not get distracted.
We as humans find shortcuts to allow us to adapt much more quickly to a changing environment. An AI system may take 6 months to learn how to make a Robot Walk on a flat plain. While it would take a human over a year to walk on a flat plain. However with that AI System, yo
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Surprising that someone on a tech-based website would feel confident saying that because some form of tech isn't particularly effective today, it's not worth a second thought.
If you think we won't ever refine the way AI crunches through data sets, or that we won't even refine the hardware it runs on, or that we won't refine the methods used for gathering data that it runs through, you're not really in the right state of mind to even begin talking about AI.
Maybe AI can figure out how to walk a robot across a
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I usually find that the people that say it won't work are the same people that understand the least about the technology and how it all really works at a detailed level.
Real AI systems will be here a lot faster than people think.
Should Not Use "I" (Score:2)
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That's rather short sighted of you. If I invest in a rather expensive piece of technology that has the capability to be self-aware, I'd like to be able to have a conversation with "it" regarding it's health, maintenance, and mission priorities.
I suggest you watch Bicentennial Man, based on an Asimov story: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
"I, Robot" is another good one. So is "Terminator".
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Yes, I do.
Fiction is what inspired humans to harness the atom for both nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons (H.G. Wells, "The World Set Free")
Fiction inspired the cell phone, the laser, earbuds, robots, and self driving cars.
Fiction is a form of literature. Literature explores and enhances the human condition.
I am prepared to explore the definition of humanity in both literature and in the real world. Are you?
It will work this time! (Score:2)
Looks like I am writing a letter. (Score:4, Interesting)
I regularly do work for overseas clients using open source imaging libraries. Libraries that are _already_ available in those countries.
So, a company in China could hire local developers to download and use the same NN (Neural Network) libraries I would use, and it would be legal. But if they hire me, overseas, to use the same libraries, that would be regulated as a technology exchange and possibly not allowed? That HURTS commerce. In an open source world, this sort of thing is ridiculous. It limits american companies by preventing them from competing internationally with already existing technologies - image classification, for example, is a Widely discussed topic, and many of the original theories and the techniques we use came from people outside the US - but thanks to international scientific sharing and open source, we - like everyone else - get to use and benefit from these techniques.
And these technologies are everywhere - they are not militarily purposed/used. These days - Our cellphones use NN to determine what sort of 'scene' we point the camera at and adjust the exposure/brightness/contrast appropriately - whether for a selfie or a food shot. Snapchat and many apps use facial recognition that uses Neural Networks - AI image classification and recognition - to implement filters. So, you're telling me a company in China can develop a new fox-face filter for their snapchat-alike app using the same techniques and libraries we can all download, but it would be bad/wrong for an american company to make such a filter and sell it on the Chinese market? No, if such regulation were to be used, the stipulations must be much more specific than just including image classification and other broad AI techniques. _OF course_ we don't want American developers making weapons for foreign regimes - but to limit ALL uses of these technologies is asinine and bad for our tech sector as it cuts off a broad swath of the global market - a swath that _already_ has access to these techniques.
The dept of commerce document linked in the article lists the following contact information:
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
through either of the following:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:/// [http]
www.regulations.gov. The identification
number for this rulemaking is BIS 2018–
0024.
Address: By mail or delivery to
Regulatory Policy Division, Bureau of
Industry and Security, U.S. Department
of Commerce, Room 2099B, 14th Street
and Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20230. Refer to RIN
0694–AH61.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kirsten Mortimer, Office of National
Security and Technology Transfer
Controls, Bureau of Industry and
Security, Department of Commerce.
Phone: (202) 482–0092; Fax (202) 482–
3355; Email: Kirsten.Mortimer AT
bis.doc.gov.
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Our cellphones use NN
Well then we just won't export any of our cell phones to China.
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IF you actually read my comment, I am NOT making weapons tech or anything related, and even state we should _of course_ limit such uses - but the technology has a ton of other uses and is everywhere in the modern world. To limit all use and export of it just because it has some military uses is asinine - like limiting the export of aluminum - which every country in the world has access to - just because the Chinese might use some to make some weapons. The might also make your dishwashers.
Learn to read.
Yeah well done (Score:2)
NS-AI (Score:1)
Natural Stupidity regulating Artificial Intelligence