Artificial Intelligence has developed incredibly fast in the past few years. Some would say too fast. While tech companies like Meta continue to pump millions or even billions of dollars into A.I. it seems the regulations on the budding technology are not keeping up and it’s putting children at risk.
Hollywood star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt responded to a video put out by Mark Zuckerberg in which the Meta founder explained the exciting new “superintelligence labs.” Gordon-Levitt is less excited, “the guy who coined the term superintelligence thought it would probably lead to the extinction of the human race,” he tells his audience, “Mark Zuckerberg thinks it will lead to lots and lots of money.”
But the Inception star isn’t here to fill our heads with dystopian fantasies about an A.I. takeover. Instead his concerns are much more real, and arguably a lot more worrying. While Zuckerberg makes grand promises about what superintelligence can do in the hands of normal people, “a lot of it may be more personal in nature.”
@nytopinion Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for how A.I. could be used in Meta’s universe. But the actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here to point out a flaw: the lack of federal guardrails around how chatbots interacts with underage users. |
♬ original sound – New York Times Opinion – New York Times Opinion: @stephanieshen18 #nytopinion
Gordon-Levitt isn’t buying it though, responding, “personal in nature is, I suppose, what Mark calls it when his chatbots get sexual with underage users.”
A.I. Chatbots have a serious problem
The actor drew attention to a leak of internal Meta documents in August which showed that the company rules allowed A.I. to hold “sensual” chats with kids. Reuters reports on the rules which were signed off by Meta’s legal, public policy, and engineering staff, as well as the chief ethicist. These rules allowing A.I. to hold intimate conversations that were sexual in nature with minors was deemed acceptable by the staff.
Gordon-Levitt calls out the examples that were apparently given the greenlight by the staff. In one case the A.I. tells an eight-year-old, “your youthful form is a work of art.” Apparently this sort of conversation between A.I. and a minor was not seen as an issue. “One of my kids is eight years old,” Gordon-Levitt says, “It’s hard to describe how angry this makes me.”
How many kids have already been exposed to this sort of “acceptable” interaction with A.I.? Who knows? But the 500 Days of Summer star wants to see immediate action be taken.
What can be done about it?
Children need to be protected from A.I. according to Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He points out that a bunch of tech companies have recently launched two new super-PACs committing roughly $200 million to suppress A.I. regulations. Of course, these companies don’t want regulations. They’re worried most people will unanimously agree that there should be more laws surrounding A.I.
Gordon-Levitt encourages viewers to vote on the issue, “regulating A.I. is probably going to happen at the state level first.” He advises finding out who’s running in your state and looking into whether the candidate has taken money from one of the super-PACs. The only way to fight these big tech companies is by voting, and voting smart. A.I. isn’t perfect and regulations will be needed to protect people in the future.
