EU Parliament Urges World Leaders To Hold Special Meetings To Control AI Development

JAKARTA - A total of 12 members of the European Parliament working on technology-related EU legislation, on Monday 17 April urged US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to hold a special meeting to find ways to control the increasingly rapid development of artificial intelligence systems (AI), such as ChatGPT.

The statement comes weeks after Twitter owner Elon Musk and more than 1,000 other tech figures demanded a six-month delay in developing a stronger system than the latest ChatGPT iteration supported by Microsoft OpenAI, which can mimic humans and create text and images on demand.

The open letter, published by the Future of Life Institute (FLI) in March, has warned that AI can disseminate misinformation with unprecedented speeds, and machines can be "more, smarter, obsolete, and replace" humans if left unsupervised.

The European MP said they did not fully agree with some of the "more alarmical" statements in the FLI letter.

"However, we agree with the letter's core message: with AI's strong rapid evolution, we see the need for significant political action," they added.

The letter prompted democratic and "non-democratic" countries to reflect on the potential system of government, and to be careful in the development of very strong AI.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for von der Leyen has not immediately responded to requests for comment from the media.

Last week, China's cyberspace regulator announced draft measures to manage generative AI services, by wanting companies to send security assessments to authorities before launching their offerings to the public.

The Biden administration has also sought public opinion regarding potential accountability measures for the AI system as questions arise about its impact on national security and education.

The European Commission submitted a draft regulation for the AI Law nearly two years ago, in which AI tools are expected to be classified based on the level of risk, ranging from low to unacceptable.

The parliamentary committee is discussing the 108-page bill and hopes to reach a joint position on April 26, according to two sources familiar with the matter.