11.7 AI Safety and Governance
AI safety is about making sure AI does what we intend. Governance is the rules and laws around how AI is built and used.
Chapter 11: Ethics, Risks, and Challenges
AI safety research tackles questions like: How do we make sure AI systems follow human intentions (called alignment)? How do we stop them being misused? How do we test powerful models before release?
Governance is the rulebook. The EU AI Act (adopted in 2024) sorts AI uses by risk level - banning some uses, tightly regulating high-risk ones like hiring or credit scoring, and requiring transparency for things like chatbots and deepfakes.
Other countries are building their own rules, and international safety summits have started. It's a fast-moving space, and your generation will help shape it.
Key takeaways
Safety = AI that does what we intend (alignment)
Governance = laws and rules for AI
EU AI Act regulates AI by risk level