Once a backwater filled with speculation, artificial intelligence is now a burning, “hair on fire” conflagration of both hopes and fears about the revolutionary technological transformation. A profound uncertainty surrounds these intelligent systems—which already surpass human capabilities in some domains—and their regulation. Making the right choices for how to protect or control the technology is the only way that hopes about the benefits of AI—for science, medicine and better lives overall—will win out over persistent apocalyptic fears. Public introduction of AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT over the past year has led to outsize warnings. They range from one given by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York State, who said AI will “usher in dramatic changes to the workplace, the classroom, our living rooms—to virtually every corner of life,” to another asserted by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who said, “Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” Such fears also include warnings of dire consequences of unconstrained AI from industry leaders.

Full opinion : We Need Smart Intellectual Property Laws for Artificial Intelligence.