Inflection AI's CEO Wants Restrictions on Nvidia Chip Sales: The Ethical Debate

Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Inflection AI and co-founder of DeepMind, believes that Washington should impose restrictions on the sale of Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) chips, vital components for training advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems, to purchasers who commit to using the technology ethically and responsibly.

Suleyman suggested that this move could be instrumental in influencing worldwide AI practices, the Financial Times reports.

Suleyman emphasized the importance of requiring buyers of Nvidia chips to adhere to voluntary commitments similar to those made by leading U.S. AI companies to the White House, including external testing before launching new AI systems.

He proposed that this measure would enable the U.S. to influence the global AI landscape.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has broadened its crackdown on Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc's (NASDAQ: AMD) AI chip exports to regions beyond China. This expansion now includes several Middle Eastern nations.

Suleyman highlighted the imminent need for action as large language models at the core of current AI advancements will likely be 100 times more potent than OpenAI's GPT-4 in just two years.

To address this, Suleyman advocated for limits on chip sales as a means of oversight.

However, Suleyman and others flagged the rapidly approaching intermediate phase, where enhanced large language models will serve more significant applications.

Suleyman revealed that by adding more memory, AI systems could evolve to handle real-world problems more effectively.

Suleyman recommended the establishment of a global institution akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, offering transparency and oversight of commercial AI systems.

The EU's proposed AI Act also finds Suleyman's support to ensure accountability and performance standards for AI technology.

Inflection AI has raised $1.3 billion from Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Nvidia as of June.