The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has recently called upon European consumer protection bodies to investigate the usage of artificial intelligence chatbots, like ChatGPT and Microsoft-backed Open AI’s ChatGPT, in order avoid potential harm to citizens. These bots are capable of mimicking humans and creating text, images, and more based on prompts. BEUC believes that this technology could lead to misinformation and deceptive advertising, especially with younger, more vulnerable consumers. Ursula Pachl, Deputy Director General of BEUC, urged the network of consumer protection authorities, as well as the European Commission, to look into the risks and damages these AI systems may impose on consumers.
In a similar move, several industry executives and AI experts recently wrote an open letter to pause development on more powerful AI systems for six months in order to develop shared safety protocols for such designs, which would be implemented and reviewed by independent experts. The letter, signed by the likes of Elon Musk, Google’s DeepMind and AI giants Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell, stated the potential risks on society and civilization from human-competitive AI systems, such as economic and political disruption. They argued that powerful AI systems should only be built and developed when there is confidence that their effects are positive and their risks are manageable.
ChatGPT, created by Microsoft-backed Open AI, is a powerful artificial intelligence chatbot that has been gaining traction due to its potential benefits. It has inspired other large companies such as Alphabet’s Google, Amazon’s cloud division AWS, and Meta Platforms to make similar tools. The ability of ChatGPT to intuit conversations and accurately generate relevant remarks make it an invaluable tool for developers and businesses. However, the potential risks involved in using ChatGPT cannot be ignored, which is why the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has called for a greater emphasis on safety when using such technology.
