In AI arms race, ethics may be the first casualty

As the tech world embraces ChatGPT and other generative AI programs, the industry's longstanding pledges to deploy AI responsibly could quickly be swamped by beat-the-competition pressures. Why it matters: Once again, tech's leaders are playing a game of "build fast and ask questions later" with a new technology that's likely to spark profound changes in society. Catch up quick: While machine learning and related AI techniques hatched in labs over the last decade, scholars and critics sounded alarms about potential harms the technology could promote, including misinformation, bias, hate speech and harassment, loss of privacy and fraud. Yes, but: Smaller companies and startups have much less at risk, financially and reputationally. ChatGPT "is nothing revolutionary," and other companies have matched it, Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun said recently.