Tiffany C. Li (U San Francisco Law) has posted “Ending the AI Race: Regulatory Collaboration as Critical Counter-Narrative” (Villanova Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The future of artificial intelligence is not a zero-sum game – or, at least, it does not have to be. The AI Race narrative emphasizes that states must engage in zero-sum thinking to control the future, by out-competing other states in developing and harnessing AI. However, not only is the AI Race narrative inaccurate, but so is what may be a burgeoning counter-narrative: the AI Ethics Race. The narrative of the AI Ethics Race utilizes the same zero-sum logic of the AI Race, but instead of one state besting all others through technological development, the state who is able to lead in developing and harnessing AI ethics regulation becomes the winner.
Both the AI Race and the AI Ethics Race are inaccurate and dangerous narratives. In reality, the future of AI will not be determined by any one state on its own; rather, states must work together and collaborate on AI ethics development. Thus, in this article, I offer regulatory collaboration as a critique of current models of international cooperation as well as competition. This article explains and deconstructs the narratives of the AI Race and the AI Ethics Race, through comparison with analogous privacy and consumer technology narratives: namely, the Big Tech Race and the Brussels Effect. Through the case study of AI, this article offers the novel framing of regulatory collaboration as an alternative model for AI ethics governance and international law.
Regulatory collaboration requires acknowledgement of the hierarchical nature of international relations and international law. It is not enough that smaller, less powerful, or less wealthy nations cooperate with the whims of larger, wealthier, more powerful nations. Instead, for regulatory collaboration, all participants must feel empowered to contribute to the shaping of regulations. In the AI context, regulatory collaboration can solve for the failings of the AI Race and the AI Ethics Race, to create a critical counter-narrative of AI Ethics Collaboration.