Fiddling while AI burns

Fiddling while AI burns

Aynne Kokas writes that American tech oversight lags behind other countries 

By Aynne Kokas

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As Congress focuses on what to do about TikTok, leaders in the tech industry have cautioned against a far more expansive risk that has a direct bearing on the role of tech in our daily lives. Data gathered by firms such as TikTok underpin advanced AI tools like the commercially-available GPT-4 large language model (LLM) and support research into next-generation models like GPT-5 and beyond.

A host of prominent technologists and academics recently released an open letter on TechCrunch urging a six-month pause on research into all AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, underscoring that the AI systems currently being developed may lead to “powerful digital minds that no one—not even their creators—can understand, predict, or reliably control.” The letter reflects how American tech oversight lags behind other countries.

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Aynne Kokas headshot

Aynne Kokas

Aynne Kokas is assistant professor of media studies and faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center. Educated at the Beijing Film Academy, the University of Michigan, and with a Ph.D. from UCLA, Kokas has also been a participant in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations. She is the author of Hollywood Made in China, a study of the partnerships between Chinese and American producers to produce feature films for global audiences. She is currently conducting research as a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, on “Border Control on the Digital Frontier: China, the United States, and the Global Battle for Data Security.” Her work examines the risks and opportunities surrounding the collection and control of personal data through new forms of surveillance.