Letters to the Editor: AI self-regulation is akin to sports teams refereeing their own games

To the editor: Columnist Michael Hiltzik is absolutely right (“Of course the government should regulate AI, but not the way the AI industry prefers,” Oct. 13). Pharmaceutical companies are regulated, financial institutions are supervised, news media operate under legal standards and countless other activities require government and legal oversight. We need referees to protect the public. Imagine asking sports teams to referee their own games and getting rid of official umpires.

We have already seen what happens when industries are left to regulate themselves: pollution, disease and chaos.

Geoffrey Hinton, whose pioneering work as a computer scientist helped lay the foundations of artificial intelligence, strongly believes the government needs to regulate the industry. We should listen to domain experts rather than politicians — such as our president — who seem to believe you can solve real-world problems simply by giving them a new name.