What role can “compute” play in AI governance?

01 March 2024
by Girish Sastry, Lennart Heim, Haydn Belfield, Markus Anderljung, Miles Brundage, Julian Hazell, Cullen O’Keefe, Gillian K. Hadfield, Richard Ngo, Konstantin Pilz, George Gor, Emma Bluemke, Sarah Shoker, Janet Egan, Robert F. Trager, Shahar Avin, Adrian Weller, Yoshua Bengio, Diane Coyle

A major new report argues that governing computing power (‘compute’) can help AI governance be more effective and targeted.

“Compute has properties that are unique among the various inputs to AI capabilities, and it is particularly important for governance of compute-intensive frontier AI models. Prominent AI governance proposals and practice in the past few years reflect this realization. With this paper, we hope to provide a better theoretical understanding of the promises and limitations of compute governance as a vehicle for AI governance, and spur more creative thinking on the future of compute governance” says newly-published report

Nineteen experts in the policy, law and practice of machine learning have jointly authored a major new report arguing that governing AI hardware, chips and data centres can play an important role in governing AI development and deployment.

The co-authors come from a range of organisations including Cambridge University’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and Bennett Institute, MILA, the Harvard Kennedy School, the company OpenAI, and research organisations like GovAI and LawAI.

blog: WHAT ROLE CAN “COMPUTE” PLAY IN AI GOVERNANCE? by Haydn belfield

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