Meta’s Global President Nick Clegg Opens Up About AI Regulation, makes shocking claims

New Delhi, 27th July 2023: Nick Clegg, Meta’s Global President, recently spoke with Rahul Kanwal on India Today in an exclusive and informative discussion about artificial intelligence (AI). The conversation focused on the widespread influence of AI as well as the critical topic of who should control this disruptive technology.

Kanwal began the interview by inquiring about AI’s growing prominence and how it has caught the public imagination. Clegg underlined that, while AI may appear to be a new phenomenon, it has actually been around for several decades.

He noted that generative AI is now generating a lot of buzz, as demonstrated by the popularity of tools like ChatGPT, which can generate interesting writing for a variety of reasons, such as school essays or wedding speeches. Clegg, on the other hand, emphasised that the present AI frenzy should not overwhelm the fact that AI has been a vital part of several platforms for many years.

Clegg said, “At Meta, we’ve been using AI for ages; anything you see on Facebook or Instagram has in one way or another been touched by AI.”

As a Meta executive, Clegg emphasised that AI has long been interwoven into the operations of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. It is important behind the scenes, moulding and improving user experiences. However, the current buzz around generative AI has hidden the substantial use of AI in these tech platforms.

Concerning regulation, Clegg stated that the objective is to identify the unique problems and obstacles linked with AI. He stated, “I think how to regulate them as a question of first working out what harms and problems you’re trying to deal with.”

Whether the issue is intellectual property, copyright infringement, or the propagation of misinformation, it is critical to identify the precise issues that must be addressed. According to Clegg, if these challenges are clearly recognised, the next stage is to assess whether existing laws are appropriate to deal with them effectively.

Clegg said, “Some of the existing laws we have will be able to be applied to AI and some new laws will be required.”

Clegg further commented on international efforts for the formulation of such laws and expressed hope that it would be a unanimous agreement.

Clegg finally concluded, “My hope is that the new laws developed should be more internationally collaborative because this technology is bigger than any country, bigger than any company so it needs to be dealt with.”