Microsoft President Brad Smith has warned that China is on track to become close competition to ChatGPT, a generative AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI and backed by Microsoft. Smith noted that Chinese research organizations and companies are quickly catching up to US tech giants such as Amazon and Google as the race for AI capabilities intensifies.
Generative AI, the technology behind ChatGPT, is groundbreaking and capable of producing text and imagery at near-human quality, promising to revolutionize fields from business to arts, education, and healthcare. At the same time, the technology has elicited fears from some who worry about the potential for automation to replace workers and for AI to be used for malicious activities such as cyber attacks, spreading misinformation, and infringement of copyrights and privacy.
Rather than stopping the development of this technology, Smith believes in the power of working with existing technologies to prevent such scenarios. Smith is currently in Japan amidst the G7 Summit as the country navigates talks of regulations for AI. He believes that the combined power of the inventive minds of people and technology can be used to protect democracy from the cybore threats of nation states.
The business application of ChatGPT is growing in Japan with the country’s three largest banks harnessing the technology to respond to internal inquiry and reduce paperwork. Similarly, insurers seek to create an AI-driven system with the ChatGPT platform to answer policyholder and insurance agent queries. Smith also sees the potential of ChatGPT to address the labour shortage crisis that Asia is facing, citing the need for productivity growth in order to fuel economic growth and secure retirement benefits.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently visited Japan to discuss measures to protect user privacy and safety with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT and the biggest Microsoft investor, looks forward to increased regulations on AI to foster a healthy environment for advances in the field. This has been an active area of research for Microsoft, who is using AI to detect cyberattack in real-time and interfere with foreign nation states’ cyber influence operations and disinformation campaigns.
In conclusion, Microsoft President Brad Smith has recognized the need to balance tech innovation with responsible conduct in order to secure democracy. With OpenAI working towards such a goal, China is an emerging power in generative AI, which has numerous beneficial but also potentially hazardous applications. Technology can be applied to improve security, protect against cyber threats, aid in labour shortages and make various advancements in different fields. As long as these advances are conducted responsibly, then the technology can be used to create a safer and more prosperous future.
