The Group of Seven industrial countries will on Monday agree a code of conduct for companies developing advanced artificial intelligence systems, a G7 document showed, as governments seek to mitigate the risks and potential misuse of the technology.
The voluntary code of conduct will set a landmark for how major countries govern AI, amid privacy concerns and security risks, the document seen by Reuters showed.
I’m just going to come out and say it. A voluntary code of conduct for technology companies and AI is an utterly worthless gesture. There will be minimal lip-service compliance at best. And at worst, the code of conduct will be completely ignored.
The current incentive structures within the tech industry do not align with the ethical and responsible development of AI. The race towards innovation and market capture is already overshadowing the ethical considerations.
The effectiveness of voluntary codes of conduct in evoking compliance has been historically underwhelming. The voluntary self-regulation in the financial sector pre-2008 was ineffective in preventing the crisis, and the self-regulation in crypto has been an utter joke.
Without a robust enforcement mechanism, without penalties for non-compliance or incentives for adherence, the efficacy of such a code is dubious, and monitoring adherence to such a code in a meaningful way is next to impossible. There’s little to deter companies from sidestepping the guidelines set by the code of conduct.
