AI researchers discuss risks and potential regulations suggest putting the brakes on the compute hardware as one … – Tom’s Hardware

A combination of researchers from OpenAI and various universities have banded together to release a 104-page PDF document to encourage AI compute regulation by regulating the hardware itself, including the potential application of kill switches where an AI is being used for malicious purposes. The original PDF file was released online by University of Cambridge with a Valentine's Day post.

The PDF, titled "Computer Power and the Governance of Artificial Intelligence", discusses how PC compute power (i.e., GPU power) is leveraged for AI workloads. It then goes on to observe that since AI PC hardware has a high degree of supply chain concentration from just a few vendors, applying regulations to that hardware should be a lot easier.

In the "Risks of Compute Governance and Possible Mitigations" section, researchers detail some potential risks of AI before recommending potential solutions. We'll summarize some key points from this section below.

As far as potential solutions to these problems go, the paper proposes a fairly wide variety of different approaches and concerns that come with them. One of these solutions is a global registry of AI chips and unique identifiers for each, which could help limit smuggling and illegitimate use.

"Kill switches," which could be used to remotely deactivate AI hardware being used for malicious purposes, are also discussed as a possible solution within the paper. Though, solutions like this also pose their own risk, since a cybercriminal gaining control of that kill switch could use it to disable legitimate users. Also, it assumes the AI hardware will be accessible to outside entities, which may not be true.

As the technology and policy around artificial intelligence continues to evolve, time will tell just how power over this supposed new frontier will end up consolidating. It seems that quite a few AI experts, including OpenAI researchers, are hoping more of that power ends up in the hands of regulators, considering the dangers of the alternative.

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AI researchers discuss risks and potential regulations suggest putting the brakes on the compute hardware as one ... - Tom's Hardware