The scene of the symposium on the development and governance of artificial intelligence
■China Economic Times reporter Zhao Shan
The 2024 Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum was held in Beijing on March 24. At the symposium on the development and governance of artificial intelligence, more than a dozen Chinese and foreign guests discussed how to make good use of the opportunities of artificial intelligence and deal with the challenges of artificial intelligence. Zhang Shunxi, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, presided over the symposium.
Wu Zhaohui, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, said in his keynote speech that artificial intelligence will become the standard configuration of the fourth industrial revolution, and the Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of artificial intelligence, by strengthening scientific and technological innovation in the field of artificial intelligence, promoting the deep empowerment of artificial intelligence in the real economy, and promoting the development of artificial intelligence ethical governance.
For the development trend of artificial intelligence, Wu Zhaohui believes that first, artificial intelligence is moving towards a new stage of multi-intelligence integration, and the technological breakthrough represented by ChatGPT has opened the prelude to general artificial intelligence. Second, artificial intelligence will become the standard configuration of the fourth industrial revolution, which will promote the revolutionary upgrading and development of the traditional real economy, thereby giving birth to a new form of intelligent economy and becoming an important engine for the development of new quality productivity. Third, artificial intelligence will trigger far-reaching changes in social development, and it will be widely used in education, medical care, housekeeping and other industries to fully meet consumers' requirements for automation, real-time and personalization.
"We hope to work with countries around the world to explore the boundaries of artificial intelligence, share innovations, and manage risks and challenges together, so as to achieve a better future for all. Wu Zhaohui said.
Zhang Hongjiang, founder and founding chairman of Beijing Zhiyuan Research Institute, said in his keynote speech that at present, AI has entered a new stage of development, represented by large models, which represents the fourth technological revolution, brings efficiency improvement, brings a lot of convenience to our lives, and will create a lot of value and a new industry. But at the same time, AI could lead to catastrophic consequences on a global scale. To avoid such dangers, we need to draw red lines, improve governance, and develop more secure technologies to control AI from crossing these red lines. The most important thing for this to happen is to sustain and strengthen cooperation between the international scientific community and intergovernmental governments in the area of security.
During the panel discussion, Joseph Hifakits, founder of Verimag Labs and winner of the 2007 Turing Award, said that AI is neither good nor bad in itself, and that the key challenge is to use it wisely and prevent risks through regulation. He believes that there are two main risks, one is technical risk and the other is human risk, which may come from the impact of misuse or unintentional use of AI, which can be controlled by regulatory or legal frameworks. The problem of unemployment due to the automation brought about by AI can also be addressed through appropriate social policies. In addition, there are two risks, one is how to strike a balance between choice and performance, and if we cannot ensure that the system is using reliable information in an impartial and neutral way, then do not leave the decision-making power to the system. The other is whether the increase in performance is balanced by the lack of human control.
Zheng Yongnian, Dean of the Qianhai Institute of International Affairs of the University of Hong Kong Chinese (Shenzhen) and Chairman of the Guangzhou Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Research Institute, said that the development and governance of artificial intelligence must develop and progress at the same time. The U.S. and China are actually complementary in the field of AI, each with its own comparative advantages, and can learn from each other. In terms of governance, in the international community, there is a greater need for cooperation between China and the United States in the field of AI governance. The most important thing for Internet AI is to open up, and China should learn from the United States through openness and do a good job of development, and the United States should learn from China's regulation and governance and make progress with each other.
Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, said that the development of artificial intelligence faces a series of risks that need to be guarded against. From the perspective of AI governance, there are five major challenges. First, the technological development of artificial intelligence is very fast, but the construction of our governance system is relatively slow. The second is the problem of information asymmetry. For example, companies don't know where the government's regulatory concerns are, and the government doesn't know what risks technology development might bring. Third, the cost of risk prevention is much higher than the cost of the harm it may cause, so the cost of risk management is high. Fourth, in terms of global governance, there are overlapping and even contradictory institutions that have relevant interests in a certain issue and want to participate in governance, which makes it very difficult to form a global governance system. Fifth, the governance in the field of artificial intelligence must have the cooperation of the United States and China, but the current geopolitics will also bring some corresponding problems.
How to solve the above-mentioned problems? Xue Lan suggested: First, it is necessary to strengthen security and technology. At present, research and development in the field of security is insufficient, and in the future there is a need to strengthen research in this area, especially international cooperation. Second, address governance issues through agile governance. Third, encourage self-regulation by enterprises. Fourth, strengthen international governance. In the area of global governance, the United Nations has just adopted an agreement and convened high-level expert discussions. Fifth, in the field of artificial intelligence, China and the United States must strengthen cooperation so that we can truly solve the various problems facing mankind.
Zhang Yaqin, dean of the Intelligent Industry Research Institute of Tsinghua University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that at present, Sora has a lot of energy, but it has just begun, and in the next five years, we will see its large-scale application in various fields, so it will bring a lot of risks. He believes that there are three major risks: First, the risk of the information world. For example, there is misinformation, false information. The second is an illusion unique to the field of large models, but the risk itself is controllable. The greater risk is that when information intelligence is extended to physical intelligence and biological intelligence, there will be a large-scale risk when it is used on a large scale. Third, the risk of connecting large models to the economic system, financial system, power stations, power networks, etc. is considerable.
How to guard against these risks? Zhang Yaqin put forward the following five suggestions. First, identify the digital humans or agents we generate. Second, there should be a mapping and registration mechanism. There will be many robots in the future, but the robot itself is a subordinate, not a subject, and must be mapped to the subject. Third, establish a grading system. For the general-scale model supervision, there can be a little less, for the cutting-edge large model, trillion-level parameters used in the physical world unmanned vehicles, used in the financial system, used in the biological system supervision, more should be graded. Fourth, it calls for 10% of the funding to be invested in the research of large model risks, which is not only policy research, but also a lot of algorithm and technology research. Fifth, the AI model must not cross the red line. The red line may not be the same at different times, but it needs to be there. China needs to work with different AI fields around the world, otherwise there is an existential risk.
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Editor-in-Chief丨Mao Jinghui Editor丨Gu Yun