At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman received a warm welcome from lawmakers, many of whom expressed surprise at his main argument: that AI should be regulated, and fast. It was a far cry from the grueling ordeals that tech CEOs have previously faced on Capitol Hill. Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Shou Zi Chew have all endured antagonistic Senate hearings in recent years about the wide-ranging impacts of their platforms--Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, respectively--on American democracy and the lives of their users. "I think what's happening today in this hearing room is historic," said Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) during the Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing about oversight of AI. "I can't recall when we've had people representing large corporations or private sector entities come before us and plead with us to regulate them." But in calling for legal guardrails to govern the tech his company is building, Altman is not unlike the other Silicon Valley leaders who have testified before Congress in the past.

Over the past half century, there have been several false dawns during which the "arrival" of world-changing artificial intelligence (AI) has been heralded. Tempting fate, the authors believe the age of AI has, indeed, finally arrived. Powerful image generators, such as DALL-E2 and Midjourney have suddenly allowed anyone with access the ability easily to create rich and complex art. In a similar vein, text generators, such as GPT3.5 (including ChatGPT) and BLOOM, allow users to compose detailed written descriptions of many topics of interest. And, it is even possible now for a person without extensive expertise in writing software to use AI to generate code capable of myriad applications. While AI will continue to evolve and improve, probably at a rapid rate, the current state of AI is already ushering in profound changes to many different sectors of society. Every new technology challenges the ability of humanity to govern it wisely. However, governance is usually viewed as both possible and necessary due to the disruption new technology often poses to social structures, industries, the environment, and other important human concerns. In this article, we offer an analysis of a range of interactions between AI and governance, with the hope that wise decisions may be made that maximize benefits and minimize costs. The article addresses two main aspects of this relationship: the governance of AI by humanity, and the governance of humanity by AI. The approach we have taken is itself informed by AI, as this article was written collaboratively by the authors and ChatGPT.

New research from Juniper Networks has found a growing appetite from both enterprises and consumers to use AI technologies. Juniper surveyed 700 global IT decision-makers for its research and found that most (67%) executives have AI as a top strategic priority for 2021. However, integrating AI remains a challenge. "As a CIO, when I see so much interest in an emerging technology, I always need to remind people there are pitfalls if it's not managed correctly. For artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that there is light at the end of the challenge-filled tunnel, and significant potential to generate even more meaningful and incredible outcomes than we've seen so far."

For some time, there has been an acute need for a legal framework to govern artificial intelligence (AI). This is largely due to the number of longstanding regulatory and ethical concerns surrounding the technology since its inception. I am a firm believer that we need to properly govern AI to prevent issues such as unethical biases, the undermining of legal and regulatory norms, and the blurred lines of organizational accountability from happening. These problems can seriously overwhelm users, business and citizens, and yet would be so avoidable if proper governance for AI was in place. So, earlier this year, when the EU Commission put forward the idea of a world-first legal framework for AI, great progress was made.

There's no better way of ensuring you win a race than by setting the rules yourself. That may be behind the recent rush by countries, international organizations, and companies to put forward their visions for how the AI race should be governed. China became the latest to release a set of "ethical standards" for the development of AI last month, which might raise eyebrows given the country's well-documented AI-powered state surveillance program and suspect approaches to privacy and human rights. But given the recent flurry of AI guidelines, it may well have been motivated by a desire not to be left out of the conversation. The previous week the OECD, backed by the US, released its own "guiding principles" for the industry, and in April the EU released "ethical guidelines."

As more organizations adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into daily workflows, they must consider how to govern these algorithms to avoid inaccuracies and bias, according to KPMG's Controlling AI report, released last week. Organizations that build and deploy AI technologies are using various tools to gain insights and make decisions that exceed human capabilities, the report noted. While this is a large opportunity for businesses, the algorithms used can be destructive if they produce results that are biased or incorrect. For this reason, many company leaders remain hesitant to allow machines to make important decisions without understanding how and why those decisions were made, and if they are fair and accurate, according to KPMG. SEE: Artificial intelligence: A business leader's guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic) To make AI a useful and accurate tool, KPMG developed the AI in Control framework, to help organizations drive greater confidence and transparency through tested AI governance constructs.

Our lives are ruled by data. Not just because it informs companies of what we want, but because it helps us to remember and differentiate what we want, what we need, and what we can ignore. All these decisions give way to patterns, and patterns, when aggregated, give us a picture of ourselves. A world where such patterns follow us, or even are sent ahead of us -- to restaurants to let them know if we have allergies, to retail stores to let them know our preferred clothing size --is now so feasible that labeling it science fiction would expose a lack of awareness more than a lack of imagination.

This weekend, Futurism got exclusive access to a closed-door round table on the global governance of AI. The event was organized by the AI Initiative from the Future Society at Harvard Kennedy and H.E. Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, the UAE's Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence. With over 50 of the world's foremost thinkers, leaders, and practitioners of AI in attendance, the conversation was--to be cliché--a hotbed for debate. These thought leaders convened with the goal of developing a road map for nations to follow as we transition to future where humans are no longer the only sentient species on the planet. During one session, which was focused on how to develop rules to govern AI, a panelist opened the discussion by implying that values are universal.

It's time for guiding principles for AI, says Microsoft. The company has called for the tech industry and governments to develop a consensus over the values and principles that will govern AI. Microsoft has repeatedly explained its desire to create artificial intelligence that assists humans without having a negative impact. In its list of the Top Ten tech issues for 2018, the company reiterated its desire to base AI on "societal principles" that are followed by every participant in the field. While many enterprise executives are already convinced by the possibilities that AI usage present, there are still major technical and ethical challenges to address, including the risk of bias, consumer rejection and irresponsibly developed applications.

Principles and values Microsoft has repeatedly explained its desire to create AI that assists humans without having a negative impact. In its list of the Top Ten tech issues for 2018, the company reiterated its desire to base AI on "societal principles" that are followed by every participant in the field. During 2017, AI rose to prominence as a technology with the potential to transform the way we live and work. There's evidence that enterprise executives are already convinced by the possibilities that AI usage presents. However, there are still major technical and ethical challenges to surmount, including the risk of bias, consumer rejection and irresponsibly developed AI applications.