‘AI will help people think smarter and faster:’ Microsoft president Brad Smith

Microsoft’s president Brad Smith calls for human oversight and regulation of AI in an interview.

He argued that AI is a tool that can help people think sharper, but also warned that AI can be weaponised and exploited. (Express image)

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“It is a tool that can help people think smarter and faster. The biggest mistake people could make is to think that this is a tool that will enable people to stop thinking.” This is how Microsoft’s president and vice-chairman Brad Smith described artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that has revolutionized various domains, from work to education, with its potential to enhance productivity and learning.

However, this powerful technology also poses significant threats. Echoing the concerns of other tech leaders, Smith urged for human oversight and regulation of AI in an exclusive interview with CNBC. He warned that AI can be weaponised and exploited for malicious purposes.

In the interview held on the sidelines of the Business 20 Summit in New Delhi, Smith suggested that every technology ever invented can be used as both a tool and a weapon.

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“We have to ensure that AI remains subject to human control. Whether it’s a government, the military or any kind of organisation, that is thinking about using AI to automate, say, critical infrastructure, we need to ensure that we have humans in control, that we can slow things down or turn things off.”

In May, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and other tech giants warned that AI could threaten humanity like nuclear war and urged to reduce the risks. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Steve Wozniak and others also called for a 6-month pause on the development of GPT-4, the latest and most advanced language model from OpenAI.

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Smith argued that the ethical use of artificial intelligence requires not only corporate responsibility, but also legal and regulatory safeguards. He compared the need for safety measures in artificial intelligence to the ones in electricity and transportation, such as circuit breakers and emergency brakes.

Smith also touched upon the concerns surrounding AI’s impact on jobs, stressing that AI is a tool that supplements human work and does not replace it.

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Pointing toward AI’s tendency to get facts mixed up and occasionally hallucinate information, Smith emphasised the importance of cross-checking AI-generated content. “The ability to take a Word document and turn it into a PowerPoint slide doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read your PowerPoint slides before you present them. In fact, you should go in and edit them and make them just perfect.”

The interview with Brand Smith echoes the views of IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, who also spoke to CNBC last week about the impact of AI on white-collar jobs. Krishna argued that AI will not replace workers, but rather enhance their skills and productivity. He said that AI is “absolutely not displacing – it’s augmenting,” and suggested that AI can also boost the GDP.