#AI#GenerativeAI#GPAI#FoundationModel: "An emerging type of AI system is a ‘foundation model’, sometimes called a ‘general-purpose AI’ or ‘GPAI’ system. These are capable of a range of general tasks (such as text synthesis, image manipulation and audio generation). Notable example are OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4, foundation models that underpin the conversational chat agent ChatGPT.
Because foundation models can be built ‘on top of’ to develop different applications for many purposes, this makes them difficult – but important – to regulate. When foundation models act as a base for a range of applications, any errors or issues at the foundation-model level may impact any applications built on top of (or ‘fine-tuned’) from that foundation model.
As these technologies are capable of a wide range of general tasks, they differ from narrow AI systems (those that focus on a specific or limited task, for example, predictive text or image recognition) in two important respects: it can be harder to identify and foresee the ways they can benefit people and society, and it is also harder to predict when they can cause harm."