In an increasingly technology-driven world, the dissemination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already a reality. Therefore, its regulation has been the focus of international attention, and several countries, including Brazil, are trying to advance in this regard. Here, various points of divergence have contributed to the postponement of the vote on the bill (PL) 2.338/2023, and recently the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) identified several risks related to such regulations that are under consideration in the National Congress.
The work of the TCU put into perspective the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Strategy (Ebia), addressing and analyzing how this would hinder its implementation, as well as the possible impacts resulting from the eventual approval of these proposals, on the public and private sectors. Established through a decree of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI), the Ebia assumes the role of guiding the Brazilian state in favor of initiatives, in its various aspects, that encourage the development of Artificial Intelligence solutions, as well as their conscious and ethical use.
For the professor at the University of Brasília (UnB) and a researcher in the area of technological innovation applied to health, Dr. Paulo Henrique de Souza Bermejo, it is necessary to consider especially if Brazilian regulation may restrict innovation, going against Ebia. It is worth mentioning that Ebia has six main objectives: to contribute to the development of ethical principles for the development and use of responsible AI; promote sustained investments in AI research and development; remove barriers to innovation in AI; train and educate professionals for the AI ecosystem; stimulate Brazilian innovation and AI in the international environment; and promote cooperation between public and private entities, industry, and research centers for the progress of Artificial Intelligence.
Paulo emphasized that excessive regulation could overwhelm and expensive the evolution of AI systems in the country, so that it would result in excessive spending of time and money for companies to comply with complex regulatory rules, rather than investing resources in improving technology. This would foster the monopoly of a few financially capable companies to create systems regularly, to comply with possible published standards. Thus, startups and smaller companies would not be able to cope with this, risking the objectives of Ebia itself. “All this scenario could result in the loss of international competitiveness in various productive sectors, that’s why it’s so important to find a balance between regulation and innovation to ensure that AI is developed and used in an ethical and responsible manner, without hindering its evolution,” added the professor.
He explained that one of the most essential aspects of the field, in Brazil, is to position the country as an international competitor, both in the development of AI itself and in its application in the productive sector. “The amount of investment and the proposed regulation in each country will directly influence the positioning in relation to other countries. This means that the national industry can have more autonomy, evolving its own technology and aiming for export, or being more dependent on importing technology from other countries. In a globalized market, Brazilian companies need to have the ability to compete with foreign ones, keeping up with technological advancements to make the production process more efficient”, he explained.
The professor also pointed out that the regulation differentiates AI systems from other systems. “In my opinion, in the medium and long term, this will apply to practically every type of software, considering that less intelligent software systems are likely to become outdated and replaced more quickly by others. In other words, this will likely lead to a series of restrictions being applied to all types of software, including those made abroad. This should impact the national software industry and the Brazilian society as a whole, as it may delay the introduction of new technologies in the country, making the national production system, related to various sectors of the economy, more efficient and competitive”, he emphasized.
Another aspect to consider relates to restrictions on experimentation, as academic AI research typically involves experimentation with new methods and algorithms. “Restrictive regulations may limit researchers’ freedom to test alternative approaches, which can impede the discovery of new solutions. Additionally, they can hinder collaboration among researchers, whether they are from different institutions or countries. This could happen, for instance, if regulations prohibit the sharing of datasets crucial to AI advancement, limiting the ability to create more efficient algorithms,” he endorsed.
The Need for Flexible Regulation
The researcher emphasized the ideal scenario of flexible AI regulations in Brazil that align with society’s understanding of the technology. “Given the numerous factors involved, rushing AI regulation in Brazil is not ideal. Instead, in-depth discussions and inclusion of all stakeholders, such as government, private sector, civil society, and academia, in the decision-making process are crucial. Regulation is essential but must be approached with caution to encompass all aspects of current circumstances. Especially since the rapid evolution of these technologies leads to new situations arising daily that are not even foreseen in existing laws or some of the bills under consideration in Brazil. Therefore, what’s urgent is the discussion and reflection on the topic, not necessarily reaching a conclusion,” he said.
In another aspect of this context, according to Paulo, it is crucial to acknowledge that AI applications span various sectors of the economy, each of which would require specific regulations, making it more reasonable to adopt various governance measures, similar to what occurs in the USA.
Copyright and Data Mining
For the teacher, regulation that goes beyond reasonableness can not only hinder the potential but also the ability of a whole community to move forward and thrive. Therefore, one of the points discussed is how to balance the protection of individual and collective rights without hindering the progress of technology, especially regarding data mining.
According to Paulo, the availability and mining of data are crucial for the development of AIs, especially for machine learning models, which require the exploration of large volumes of data. One example of this is found in the realm of large language models, such as GPT-3 and 4, the basis for ChatGPT, which are trained on vast amounts of internet text, learning to generate content similar to human, understand instructions, among other things.
The issue, as he stated, revolves around the copyright of the data used for training. “An unreasonable decision in regulation can hinder the development and use of AI systems that require the exploration of a large volume of data, involving text, audio, and images. This would create even more barriers for the national market,” he argued.
In another view of this context, the expert pointed out that the issue of copyright has been widely debated worldwide, with these technologies receiving countless criticisms. For Professor Bermejo, it is necessary for there to be a consensus for the major manufacturers of these technological tools to reach an agreement with content creators in case of intellectual property violations.
Finally, according to the expert, training language models in Portuguese is a key point because even though commercial models like Gemini and ChatGPT "speak" our language, often this happens through translations, so it can result in biased and incorrect responses. On the other hand, Brazilians also produce a large volume of data targeted by foreign "big tech" companies, capable of training large artificial intelligence models, so they would be profitable alternatives in this market, with an AI that is genuinely Brazilian.
