A quick guide to six ways we can regulate AI

Welcome back to What’s Next in Tech. In this edition, learn about six of the most (and least) promising efforts to regulate AI. Then, find out about the first FDA-approved gene therapy that’s applied to the outside of a patient’s body, and discover the little-known group setting the corporate climate agenda.

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Let us walk you through all the most (and least) promising efforts to govern AI around the world.

AI regulation is hot. Ever since the success of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, the public’s attention has been grabbed by wonder and worry about what these powerful AI tools can do.

Tech CEOs, US senators and leaders at the G7 summit are all united in their desire for international standards and stronger guardrails to govern AI. Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review’s senior AI reporter, analyzed six different international attempts to regulate the technology and gave each of them a score for how influential they are. Here are the results.

This story is part of our Tech Review Explains series, dedicated to untangling the complex, sometimes messy, world of science and technology to help you understand what's going on. Check out the other stories in the series.

The FDA just approved rub-on gene therapy that helps “butterfly” children

The news: Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved sales of the first gene therapy that is directly applied to the body—as well as the first intended to be used on the same person repeatedly.

How it works: The treatment introduces a missing gene to skin cells so they can make collagen. It’s already helping people with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a rare inherited disease that makes skin incredibly fragile. The topical ointment helps to heal the disease’s chronic, blistering wounds, while an eyedrop version can prevent scar tissue from building up in their eyeballs and improve their vision.

The next steps: The gene treatment is unusual as it doesn’t involve injection or altering immune cells outside the body. It suggests similar approaches could have lucrative applications. The biggest question right now, however, is how much it will cost the families who need it. Read the story.

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Inside the little-known group setting the corporate climate agenda

As thousands of companies trumpet their plans to cut carbon pollution, a small group of sustainability consultants has emerged as the go-to arbiter of corporate climate action.

The Science Based Targets initiative, or SBTi, helps businesses develop a timetable for action to shrink their climate footprint through some combination of cutting greenhouse-gas pollution and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. After years of small-scale sustainability work, SBTi is growing rapidly, and governments are paying attention. 

But while the group has earned praise for reeling the private sector into constructive conversations about climate emissions, its rising influence has also attracted scrutiny and raised questions about why a single organization is setting the standards for many of the world’s largest companies. Read the story.

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Images: Stephanie Arnett/MITTR | Envato; Courtesy of Yunielkys Carvajal; Daniel Stolle