“What are the ethical issues with such perspectives?” – Kommersant FM – Kommersant

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levy discusses why the IT giant has reduced the ethics and society team.

Microsoft has fired its entire AI ethicist team. These people have been caught up in a wave of 10,000 job cuts across the corporation, according to the Platformer news outlet. The Ethics and Society team, which has consisted of just seven people since last October, has been responsible for ensuring that Microsoft’s products delivered to the market reflect the principles of responsible artificial intelligence in their design.

Prior to its downsizing, the group identified risks associated with integrating OpenAI technologies, in particular ChatGPT. It’s worth noting that Microsoft still has an Office for Responsible AI that sets the rules. But the work of specialists comes down to general corporate issues and public policy.

Is it possible to assume that the IT giant is in a hurry to introduce technologies, and therefore decided to loosen the reins where possible? This is easy to believe if you focus on the financial aspects. According to Microsoft itself, every 1% of the market share that it can take away from Google will bring it $2 billion in annual revenue. The corporation is already rebuilding its Bing search engine and Edge web browser, which will use ChatGPT and DALL-E artificial intelligence models. 2.

To work effectively with these tools, Microsoft had to create a supercomputer. In practice, this meant finding a way to connect tens of thousands of Nvidia’s A100 graphics chips. Moreover, they also had to be assembled in the server in a special way to avoid power outages. And this project, according to representatives of Microsoft, took several hundred million dollars. This is not counting the promised billion investments in OpenAI.

Keeping a team of seven people who can block or noticeably slow down such expensive processes seems to be risky. Meanwhile, auto giant GM announced the introduction of ChatGPT as a driver assistant. He will be able, for example, to tell you point by point how to replace a punctured wheel or what this or that indication means. What are the ethical issues with such perspectives?