US urges hands-off approach to AI regulation at G20 tech meeting

By Courtney Rozen

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. on Tuesday pressed G20 members to take a hands-off approach to AI regulation and avoid creating new rules for the technology at a gathering of industry titans and commerce ministers in North Carolina. 

The U.S. goals largely align with the thinking of the world's biggest AI companies, nearly all of which are American. They want less regulation around the world for their rapidly growing businesses, or to shape the rules as they are written. Federal government ⁠requirements could hurt the industry's profits if they slow the release of new models or ​prompt the companies to change how their ​products perform ⁠to address security concerns.

U.S. tech adviser Michael Kratsios, who is co-hosting the two-day meeting, advocated for countries to adopt the "Carolina Principles." 

Countries that sign on agree to "reserve new regulation for novel considerations" when writing rules for AI, Kratsios told the G20 officials at the meeting.  They also will invest in "foundational research to accelerate discovery" and strengthen commercial opportunities for new technology, he said. 

"Policymakers do not need to approach each innovation in isolation and should not treat every emerging technology as a first-of-its-kind policy problem," he said. 

The G20 leaders are convening at a key moment in the AI sector's development and the global debate over how to govern it, and as the U.S. faces an increasing threat from China for AI supremacy.

A United Nations panel recently warned that AI's developments are outpacing scientific understanding and government policy. Recent events, including a hack triggered by a rogue OpenAI agent that compromised the infrastructure of AI company Hugging Face, added to concerns about how closely leading AI companies are monitoring tests of their products.

AI agents are programs that run with minimal human supervision. 

INDUSTRY LEADERS 

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday morning criticized the European Union's tech regulations, saying that the EU's policy "inhibits progress" for companies. He also urged leaders outside China to develop new energy sources to power data centers. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will address the ministers by video chat, a U.S. Commerce Department spokesperson said, in lieu of company president Dina Powell McCormick, who had previously planned to speak. Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis was also added to the list of speakers who will address the ministers by video chat, a Google spokesperson said on Monday. 

Reuters previously reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will separately appear before the delegates with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is also hosting the meeting, on Wednesday. 

The U.S. at the G20 tech meeting will press member countries not to set up new regulatory organizations to oversee AI development, a White House official said. 

The ​meeting is one of a series of gatherings taking ​place ⁠over the next few months in U.S. cities leading up to the G20 leaders' summit in Miami in December.

U.S.-CHINA AI RACE

Chinese open-weight AI models, systems with publicly accessible core elements, are becoming increasingly capable when compared to proprietary systems from American AI giants such as Anthropic and OpenAI. Chinese-made open-weight models are gaining ground with U.S. companies, also posing a potential security risk if the country's leaders decide to interfere. 

"It has increased urgency for this administration to make sure that the rest of the world stays within the American tech ecosystem and doesn't seek alternatives," said Vivek Chilukuri, a technology and national security fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters about attending the North Carolina meeting.

Canadian officials are slated to attend, a spokesperson for the Canadian government said, adding that the delegation will advocate for countries to balance innovation with "public trust and safety." The U.S. and Canada are embroiled in a trade war, started by the U.S. president. 

(Reporting by Courtney Rozen and JC Whittington; Editing by David Gaffen, Hugh Lawson, Louise Heavens, Alistair Bell and Andrea Ricci )