NAB
Tech guru Jaron Lanier has added his
voice to those calling for regulation in AI, arguing that it is in the best
interest of society — and that of Big Tech.
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As part of that regulation, Lanier,
who now works at Microsoft, also argues for all data used by AI models to have
its origin and ownership declared, to counter the threat from misinformation
and deepfakes.
“All of us, Microsoft, Open AI, everybody in AI of
any scale is and saying, we do want to be regulated. [AI] is a place where
regulation makes sense,” Lanier told Bloomberg’s AI IRL videocast.
“We want to be regulated because everybody can see [that AI] could be like the
troubles of social media, times a thousand. We want to be regulated. We don’t
want to mess up society. We depend on society for our business. You know,
markets are fast and creative. And you don’t get that without a stable layer
created by regulation.”
Speaking to the idea of “data dignity,” Lanier explained that this is the notion that creators should be compensated, especially if their data is being used to train algorithms.
Provenance
“In order to do it, we have to
calculate and present the provenance of which human sources were the most
important to give an AI output. We don’t currently do that. We can though. We
can do it efficiently and effectively,” Lanier says. “It’s just that we’re not
yet. And it has to be a societal decision to shift to doing that.”
He admits to being “scared” of the
potential for misinformation caused by unregulated AI use interfering with
politics but feels the answer to deep fakes is provenance. “If you know where
data came from, you no longer worry about deep fakes. The provenance system has
to be robust.”
Lanier’s bizarre title at Microsoft is “Prime Unifying Scientist,” something he admitted was a humorous attempt to encompass everything he does, like an octopus.
“I have come to resemble one, or so
my students tell me, and I’m also very interested in their neurology. They have
amazing nervous systems. So we thought it would be an appropriate title.”
However, this gives him something of
a free-roaming role both inside and outside the company. He was at pains to
point out that he was not speaking here in an official Microsoft capacity.
In fact, Lanier has become a fierce
critic of the industry he helped build, but he wants to challenge it to do
better from within.
“To be an optimist, you have to have
the courage to be a fearsome critic. It’s the critic who believes things can be
better. The critic is the true optimist, even if they don’t like to admit it.
The critic is the one who says this can be better.”
Open Source Concerns
For example, he doesn’t think the
open source model for AI or Web3 makes any sense. He poured scorn on the idea
that open source would democratize and decentralize the internet and its reward
system.
“I think the open source idea comes
from a really good place and that people who believe in it, believe that it
makes things more open and democratic, and honest and safe. The problem with it
is this idea that opening things leads to decentralization is just
mathematically false. Instead of decentralization, you end up with
hyper-centralization and monopoly. And then that hub is incentivized to keep
certain things very secret and proprietary, like its algorithms.”
Instead, he advocates for a market
economy, in which people and businesses pay to use technology, like AI. He
hints that doing so would fund data provenance and retain data
integrity.
Lanier says he doesn’t agree with the
founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, on everything, including his notion of a
universal cryptocurrency: “I think that some criminal organization will take
that over, no matter how robust he tries to make it.”
The Benefits of Speaking Up
He says being able to criticize from
within Big Tech is actually beneficial for Microsoft’s own business.
“I’ve tried to create a proof of
that, where I can say things that are not official Microsoft. Look, I spend all
day working on making Microsoft stuff better. And I really am proud that people
want to buy our stuff and want to buy our stock. I like our customers. I like
working with them. I like the idea of making something that somebody likes
enough to pay you money for it. That to me is the market economy.”
Lanier wants to persuade colleagues
at Meta and Google to speak their minds more, too.
“If the other tech companies had a
little bit of [free] speech in it might actually be healthy for them. I think
it would actually improve the business performance of companies like Google and
Meta. You know, they’re notoriously closed off. They don’t have people who
speak, and I think they suffer for that, [even if] you might not think so
because they are they’re big successful companies. I really think they could do
more.”
He says there are four or five other
execs at Microsoft with public careers outside the company who speak their
mind.
“I think it’s been a successful
model. Do I agree with absolutely everything that happens in Microsoft? Of
course not. I mean, listen, it’s as big as a country, you know.”
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