Why the AI ​​industry should want regulation now, not later

Since AI began its historic rise in prominence in 2022, conversations about how to regulate the industry have been growing at a similar pace. Many startup founders believe that regulating the industry now could stifle innovation. But others disagree, believing that waiting for policy and regulation to be implemented could bite the industry in the future.

Helen Toner, director of strategy and grants for fundamental research at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology and a former OpenAI board member, understands the AI ​​industry’s concerns about regulation. But at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event in June, Toner told the audience that AI players shouldn’t be afraid of regulation now, but rather be more afraid of regulation that might suddenly appear later.

She added that if the U.S. government holds off on regulating now, the AI ​​industry could suffer the same fate as areas like crypto and social media. An incident will happen, and then Congress will quickly pass legislation to regulate the industry in a way that may be overly intrusive or less thoughtful than it might have been if it had been implemented before the incident occurred.

“Some of the smarter, more thoughtful actors that I’ve seen in this space are trying to say, ‘OK, what are some fairly gentle, fairly sensible safeguards that we can put in place now to reduce the likelihood of future crises, reduce their severity and fundamentally reduce the likelihood of having to make some kind of quick and poorly thought-out response in the future,’” she said.

Toner said that regardless of what startups or VCs think about potential AI regulation, they should be actively involved in the conversations around it. Companies of all sizes and stages should be talking to Washington insiders and lobbyists about how their companies operate, what different regulations might look like and how they would affect their business. That way, they can have a say in shaping the regulations that work for them.

“I think thinking about it as a productive collaboration of different people with different kinds of expertise and bringing the expertise that you have to the table is really valuable,” Toner said. “I think thinking about it as something that you can ignore, or as some kind of adversarial struggle where you have to try to get the other side to do as little as possible, is going to be less productive.”

Toner said smaller startups and entrepreneurs thinking about doing business in the AI ​​sector can also start preparing for potential regulations.

“(Companies should) track what you’re training; how are you training it? How are you testing it? What are you doing with your data? How are you updating it? Which models have you deployed and which products at what time,” she said. “The stories you hear from people who have been inside some of these large companies, really respected companies, are that often they don’t even have good records of, like, what combination of models is running this particular product right now.”

While Congress has held hearings on potential AI regulation, and Toner is confident it will happen at some point, she doesn’t think it will happen anytime soon, regardless of how this year’s election plays out.

“If I had to put money on it, I would probably put money on the fact that there won’t be any massive new changes at the federal level,” Toner said. “And then it’s just a matter of what else might happen on the fringes.”