The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has established clear guiding principles to shape the regulations concerning AI and to provide direction for companies involved in the development of the nascent technology.
As the primary antitrust regulator in the UK, the CMA has focused its efforts on foundational models. These models include AI systems such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, Meta’s Llama 2, and other extensive language models that underpin various generative AI applications.
The CMA has urged companies engaged in the creation of these foundation models to adhere to the seven guiding principles:
- Accountability
- Access
- Diversity
- Choice
- Flexibility
- Fair dealing
- Transparency
The principles ensure that developers and businesses utilising these models take responsibility for the results provided to consumers, guaranteeing widespread access to chips, processors and the training data necessary for AI system development, as well as providing a variety of business models, encompassing both open and closed models.
Sarah Cardell, CEO of the CMA says, “There is real potential for this technology to turbocharge productivity and make millions of everyday tasks easier – but we can’t take a positive future for granted. There remains a real risk that the use of AI develops in a way that undermines consumer trust or is dominated by a few players who exert market power that prevents the full benefits being felt across the economy.”
Responsible AI use
In addition, the CMA further emphasised that companies should provide a choice for businesses to decide how to use a model and offer flexibility and interoperability that’ll allow users to transition to alternative models or even use multiple models at the same time.
The CMA developed these principles after conducting an initial assessment and in preparation for a series of discussions involving consumer and civil society organisations, developers of foundation models such as Google, Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Anthropic, users of foundation models and academic experts.
“While I hope that our collaborative approach will help realise the maximum potential of this new technology, we are ready to intervene where necessary,” said Cardell.
Governments worldwide have been exploring various methods for regulating generative AI. For instance, the European Union, through its proposed AI Act, places a strong emphasis on foundation models and enforces transparency regulations on companies. In China, recent AI regulations mandate that AI companies register with the government and commit to not providing anti-competitive algorithms.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
