Artificial intelligence is growing faster than ever before. Universities, lawmakers, businesses and social media have struggled to impose standards to govern it, according to Amy Cyphert at West Virginia University, raising genuine concerns.
The CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI have all expressed that they would like to see some form of regulation, according to PBS. However, President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers have recently argued that concerns about AI have been exaggerated, according to CBS.
Josiah Brown, a computer science student at the University of Indianapolis, expressed concerns about the potential risks posed by a lack of regulation but also questioned the motivation behind industry support for regulation.
“The more I learn about these [Large Language Model] (LLM) companies, the more I find a lot of corruption and a lack of regulation, overall typically just bad backlashes for the companies themselves, which is causing them to lose investors and lose money. So, the main reason they might want regulation is to protect their assets financially speaking,” said Brown.
Karl Knapp, the Dean of the School of Business at UIndy, said there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about increasingly capable AI systems, such as rogue AI agents hacking systems. However, Knapp does not believe that every proposed regulation would benefit the general public. He explained that some established AI companies may support regulation because it could give them a competitive advantage by making it harder for smaller companies and open-source developers to compete.
Unlike some models that require permissions, open sourced systems can permit bigger organizations to run the AI model off of computers that they control, according to The Open Source Initiative. Knapp said that this can help companies protect sensitive information as it would not need to be sent to an outside provider. If a free model becomes capable enough to perform most of the same tasks as a paid system, businesses have less incentive to pay for access. This puts policymakers in a unique position where the technology is developing faster than they can regulate it.
“There are a variety of concerns. There are certain segments [the AI Industry] pushing for regulation that they believe they could control so it creates a better business environment for them” Knapp said, “I believe they are trying to create a moat around their business.”
The rapid development of AI has already created problems for institutions attempting to establish rules. Brown characterized AI as “a baby, but it’s a big baby. It’s essentially the culmination of all of Mankind’s knowledge at this point.”
Universities experience these issues first hand, as students and professors have tried to draw the line on how AI is used in classrooms, according to the Lumina Foundation. Reid said that similar issues arose during the introduction of calculators, as there was a fear that students would no longer be able to understand basic math concepts, but eventually experts realized that students became more productive with them.
“It’s growing so fast that regulations, policies at University level, or even at a company level can barely keep up,” said Kenneth Reid, director of engineering at the University of Indianapolis.
Reid believes AI could have a similar outcome, helping students and professionals alike accomplish more if they understand the fundamentals first, and becoming more productive as they use the tool. However, students who use AI to complete assignments without learning the material may struggle when they reach more advanced courses, according to Reid. These concerns extend beyond education, according to Brown, as there is already evidence that people may become dependent on AI and stop attempting to solve problems independently, weakening their critical thinking skills.
Brown also questioned whether lawmakers have the technical knowledge or experience required to develop effective AI regulations.
“[Lawmakers] need technical advisors,” Brown said, “The people in charge of policy making have a vague theory in their head, but at the end of the day you need someone that understands the linear algebra and equations [that make AI work]”
Reid stated that policymakers should rely on technical experts when developing regulations, rather than trying to understand the complex mathematics and mechanics behind AI systems themselves. Knapp also questioned whether elected officials have enough technical expertise to regulate a rapidly changing technology. He said lawmakers should have independent experts advising them so that regulations are based on an understanding of how AI actually works.
“Regulations crafted by a lobbying group of a couple very big companies that are well funded, and the regulation just so happens to favor those companies,” Knapp said. ”We should be really careful about regulation when it comes to creating slanted marketplaces.”
Knapp argued that the goal should be a competitive market in which companies succeed because of the quality of their ideas and products rather than because regulations prevent competitors from entering. The same companies developing increasingly powerful systems also have billions of dollars invested in their technology and have a financial interest in maintaining their positions. The challenge for policymakers is determining where that line should be drawn, according to Reid.
“I think they have zero ability to write their [AI] regulations,” Reid explained, “instead of each side pointing to the other side and saying how bad the other side is, I’d rather see them bringing people that understand AI in to write the regulations then start from there.”
