Thoughts on AI Index Report 2023 (Stanford-HAI)

If you have made it to here after the last 4 parts, my biggest appreciation! :D
If you have not, please find the other 4 parts below. :)
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Let's move to the last two key insights made by the HAI-AI Index Report.

9. Policymaker interest in AI is on the rise.

An AI Index analysis of the legislative records of 127 countries shows that the number of bills containing “artificial intelligence” that were passed into law grew from just 1 in 2016 to 37 in 2022. An analysis of the parliamentary records on AI in 81 countries likewise shows that mentions of AI in global legislative proceedings have increased nearly 6.5 times since 2016.

This will increase as long new innovation in AI comes into the picture. Since the AlphaGo comes into the technology scene, the immense potential from AI is for all to see. There will be people, technical and non-technical, who then start to gain attention, or try to gain attention by stoking fears as that is the easiest emotions to appeal to. The fear is stoked further with Cambridge Analytica saga, and how Facebook has abused user's data, followed by Google engineer fired for thinking that an AI chatbot is sentient. All these facts made it to the main population with eye-capturing headlines that stoked fear further. Politicians needing that attention, to score points, to gain popularity (nothing wrong, it is part of their job) move their focus towards regulating the "new evil" (but IMO necessary). To this point, I need to clarify. I am in support for regulations! :)

Artificial Intelligence at the current development is just another tool that can be found in your smartphone currently and it will be prevalent. Like any new tool, regulation is important, to ensure the tools greatest benefit with minimal risk and negative impact. But I want to appeal to all regulators, while fear will stoke caution, there are two things we need to be mindful of so that humanity can continue to benefit from Artificial Intelligence:

1) Understand Artificial Intelligence for what it is right now. Uninformed fear is unhealthy as our mind will run wild with all the "possibilities". However, informed fear will help us gained the benefits from AI, create more jobs that will be a lot longer in the Knowledge Economy. This leads me to the second point.

2) Have a balance of knowledge needed to create "beneficial" regulations. Ensure there are technical people in the committee, advisory and executive. Non-technicals, due to their fear will move to the "tightening" end of the regulation spectrum while the technicals serve as a balance, pulling the committee towards the "loosening" end of the regulation spectrum. This push and pull can help make regulations reaching the "Goldilocks" spot on the spectrum, allowing for innovation to flourish while managing risk at the same time.

Again, no surprises on this! Given ChatGPT's appearance, I am sure that interest will just keep increasing. What I will like to advocate rather, is informed fear, ensuring that innovation in AI can still flourish, creating more tools that can benefit mankind while managing the negative impact.

10. Chinese citizens are among those who feel the most positively about
AI products and services. Americans … not so much.

In a 2022 IPSOS survey, 78% of Chinese respondents (the highest proportion of surveyed countries) agreed with the statement that products and services using AI have more benefits than drawbacks. After Chinese respondents, those from Saudi Arabia (76%) and India (71%) felt the most positive about AI products. Only 35% of sampled Americans (among the lowest of surveyed countries) agreed that products and services using AI had more benefits than drawbacks.

I am pretty surprised that this made it as a Key Insight in the report, but to be fair, I have no idea what is the criteria to be considered a Key Insight. I will have chosen the following as Key Insight rather because it will help researchers to navigate better on the impact of their research.

Different causes for excitement and concern.

Among a sample of surveyed Americans, those who report feeling excited about AI are most excited about the potential to make life and society better (31%) and to save time and make things more efficient (13%). Those who report feeling more concerned worry about the loss of human jobs (19%); surveillance, hacking, and digital privacy (16%); and the lack of human connection (12%).

Anyway, my commentary on Key Insight No. 10 is, read the insights together with the political climate, media industry, etc to have a better understanding of the Key Insights and the possible trend going forward. :)

Conclusion

This concludes my commentary on the Top Ten Key Insights from the AI Index. I will be digging into the report further and perhaps the data as well when I have more time.

Appreciate the time that you spend to read till so far! But more importantly, I will love to hear your thoughts on it, to have a healthy discussion, to spark more thoughts and ideas! Look forward to hearing from you!

If you want to read my thoughts on the 2022 report.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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