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Artificial intelligence industry leaders and elected officials gathered at Duke University on Friday to discuss growing concerns about the wide-ranging risks posed by rapidly advancing AI technology.
The conference came days after renewed warnings from some AI leaders about the potential dangers of increasingly autonomous systems, including concerns that AI could be misused or abused.
The annual Duke conference brought together experts in cybersecurity, government and technology. This year, much of the discussion centered on AI and how governments and companies should respond to emerging risks.
NSA Deputy Director Tim Kosiba spoke Friday morning about threats posed by America’s adversaries and how they could potentially weaponize AI.
Other conversations focused on whether AI companies should follow stronger ethical standards and whether technology companies should review one another’s work.
One question raised at the conference was whether companies such as Meta and OpenAI should monitor each other’s AI systems as a form of self-policing.
The organizer of the conference, Duke executive Art Ehuan, said there are many unknowns surrounding AI’s future but argued that safeguards need to be put in place as soon as possible.
“I don’t think we can forecast what’s going to happen down the road, right? But the important thing is that we start putting guardrails in place,” Ehuan said. “That’s why we need the policy. We need the politicians, like the congresswoman, looking at, you know, what should those guardrails look like so that we can minimize the risk and the impact of AI?”
U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross also attended the conference and was asked whether the federal government needs to step in and regulate AI.
Ross said she believes the current administration has largely blocked efforts to advance AI regulations, but she hopes lawmakers will have an opportunity beginning in January to work in a bipartisan way on policies governing the technology’s use.
She said she hopes Congress is not too late in addressing the issue.
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. also spoke at the conference about the use of artificial intelligence on the battlefield, including drones and the potential threats emerging technologies could pose to U.S. service members.
President Donald Trump has pushed back on concerns about AI, calling fears about the technology a “hoax” and arguing that AI is an important economic engine.
