Norwegian wealth fund warns of AI dangers whereas reeling in billions from the tech
To say that Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund made a killing these previous months could be an understatement. The world’s largest investor within the inventory market earned 1,501 billion crowns (€131.1bn) within the first half of 2023, and far of it as a result of current increase in AI.
To a big extent, the income got here from the fund’s shares in tech corporations reminiscent of Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia that every one noticed a surge from the present AI craze. In the meantime, the fund is telling the exact same corporations to get critical in regards to the accountable deployment and dangers of synthetic intelligence.
“As AI turns into ubiquitous throughout the financial system, it’s more likely to deliver nice alternatives, but in addition extreme and uncharted dangers,” the €1.28 trillion fund mentioned in a letter revealed this week.
It added that the know-how continues to develop at a tempo that makes it difficult to foretell and handle dangers within the type of regulatory and reputational danger to corporations, in addition to broader societal implications associated to, as an example, discrimination and disinformation.
In an effort to mitigate the threats posed by the know-how, the letter prompt the fund’s 9,000+ portfolio corporations develop their experience on AI on the board.
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Boards “completely not on prime” of AI, fund CEO says
In an interview with the Financial Times, the fund’s CEO, Nicolai Tangen, said that “Boards are completely not on prime of this.” He additional added that the fund would vote in opposition to corporations that didn’t ship on AI experience at directorial stage.
The oil fund additionally desires corporations to reveal and clarify how they use AI, and the way methods are designed and educated, so-called transparency and explainability. Moreover, it’s searching for strong danger administration past a standard enterprise focus, including human oversight and management to mitigate potential threats to privateness and discrimination. It didn’t go as far as to say the doom of humankind.
In the meantime, Tangen isn’t shy in stating that, “When you don’t suppose there are alternatives with AI, then in my thoughts you’re a full moron.”
Within the letter, the fund additionally states that it helps the event of “a complete and cohesive regulatory framework for AI that facilitates protected innovation and mitigation of antagonistic impacts.”
But, Tangen acknowledges that this will likely be “very laborious” to realize on a world scale, as a result of know-how’s close to ubiquitous utility in every part from training and navy to vehicles and finance.