Microsoft President Warns of Potential AI Pitfalls Mirroring Social Media’s Blunders

During a business forum on Friday, Microsoft president Brad Smith warned that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence could lead to the same errors made by the tech industry during the early days of social media.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has raised global alarm about the technology’s possible disinformation, misuse and upheaval in the labor market.

But Smith suggested those misgivings didn’t rub off on the developers of the potentially revolutionary technology, whose optimism reminded him of the early years of social media platforms.

At the time, the tech industry “got a little too euphoric about all the good that social media would bring to the world — and there have been many — without also considering the risks,” he said.

“We have to be clear-eyed, we have to be excited about the possibilities, but thoughtful, maybe even worried about the downsides. And we have to build guardrails from the beginning,” he added.

The rise of artificial intelligence has sparked both excitement and concern about its potential to improve or replace tasks performed by humans.

In recent months, AI tools have demonstrated the ability to compose essays, create realistic images, mimic the voices of famous singers, and even pass medical tests, among numerous uses.

But there are also concerns that chatbots could fill the Internet with disinformation, that biased algorithms would spread racist material, or that AI-powered automation could destroy entire industries.

A UN report released this week concluded that AI is more likely to create jobs than destroy them, but added that the technology is changing the intensity of work and the autonomy of workers.

It also said that the impact of technology varies greatly between occupations and regions, with office workers exposed to change and women more likely than men to see their work.

Smith said it was clear that the public “wanted to trust that this new technology would remain under human control.”

Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard, said that companies need to increase confidence in the use of technology and take action to solve problems such as artificial intelligence.

But he also said he believed the risks associated with artificial intelligence were not “terribly new” and should not hinder the technology’s further development.

“Naturally, regulation is behind,” he said. “But that shouldn’t slow us down.”

The two men spoke in New Delhi with other world leaders at a meeting that serves as a prelude to next month’s G20 summit in the Indian capital.