After Meta, Microsoft & OpenAI, Google comes forward on supporting EU on AI regulation

Several AI companies including Meta,  Microsoft, and OpenAI along with Google, a recent addition, have joined the race of EU’s AI regulations discussion, as informed by the head of the company’s cloud computing division. 

Members of the European Parliament approved legislation earlier this month with the intention of adding control to AI deployment in the bloc. The EU AI Act contains rules to ensure that the training data used by generative AI tools does not infringe upon copyright laws.

Google works on technology that distinguishes humans and AI 

“We’re having productive conversations with the EU government. Because we do want to find a path forward,” CEO of Google cloud, Thomas Kurian, said in a recent statement. He continued to say, “These technologies have risk, but they also have enormous capability that generate true value for people.”

Google is developing technology, according to Kurian, to ensure that users can distinguish between material produced by humans and artificial intelligence. At its I/O event last month, the company announced a 'watermarking' system that labels photographs produced by AI.

While expressing his take on the need for regulation, Kurian also emphasised on the power of technologies that needs to be looked after in a responsible way. Moreover, he agreed to have been working with governments in the European Union, United Kingdom and in many other countries to ensure that such technologies are adopted in the right way. 

Previous concerns posed by Google employees 

Earlier, some of Google's top researchers and members have raised alarm about how swiftly AI is developing at the company. 

For instance, Google employees criticised the company's unveiling of Bard, its generative AI chatbot to compete with Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT, as ‘rushed,’ ‘botched," and ‘un-Googley’ in posts on the internal forum Memegen. 

A number of former prominent Google researchers have also expressed concerns about the company's handling of AI and what they claim is a lack of focus on the moral growth of such technology. They include Geoffrey Hinton, the ‘Godfather of AI,’ and ‘Timnit Gebru,’ the former co-leader of Google's ethical AI team, who recently left the company over worries that its aggressive push into AI was out of control. Geoffrey Hinton raised concerns about the company's internal AI ethics guidelines.

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“We have said quite widely that we welcome regulation, " said Kurain. We do think these technologies are powerful enough, they need to be regulated in a responsible way, and we are working with governments in the European Union, United Kingdom and in many other countries to ensure they are adopted in the right way.”