Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the biggest topic of discussion in the tech industry since OpenAI announced ChatGPT in November 2022. Soon after, companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft… also invested heavily in their own AI efforts.
Big Tech has been open about its ambitions for AI, but lately it has been quietly addressing the risks the technology poses to its business. In its 2023 annual report, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said AI products and services pose ethical, technological, legal, regulatory, and other challenges that could negatively impact its brand and demand.
Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle also mentioned concerns about AI in their filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), often under the “risk factors” section, according to Bloomberg. For example, Microsoft said that generative AI features could be vulnerable to unforeseen security threats.
In Meta’s 2023 annual report, Facebook’s parent company stressed that “there are significant risks associated with developing and deploying AI,” and that “there can be no assurance that the use of AI will improve services, products, or business.” Meta listed AI scenarios that could harm users and expose them to litigation, such as disinformation (such as in elections), harmful content, intellectual property infringement, and data privacy.
Meanwhile, the public also expressed concern about AI making some jobs obsolete or disappearing, or large language models trained on personal data spreading misinformation.
On June 4, a group of former and current OpenAI employees sent a “letter of intent” asking technology companies to do more to mitigate the risks of AI. They are concerned that AI will increase inequality, manipulation, misinformation, and that uncontrolled automated AI systems will threaten the survival of humanity.
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