London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warns against overregulation of AI

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt urged cooperation with Chinese scientists, warned against the threat of misinformation, and advised against overregulation by governments today in a broad-ranging speech about AI ethics and regulation of big tech companies. He also talked about conflict deterrence between nation-states in the age of AI and pondered how secretaries of state might share information in the coming age of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

“What are the norms of this? This area strikes me as one that’s nascent but will become very important as general intelligence becomes more and more possible some time from now,” he said. “We haven’t had a common regime around how all that works.”

In a speech at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution today, he praised progress made in the field of AI in areas like autonomous driving and medicine, federated learning for privacy-preserving on-device machine learning, and eye scans for detection of cardiovascular issues. A combination of generative adversarial networks and reinforcement learning will lead to major advances in science in the years ahead.

He also urged government restraint in regulation of technology as the AI industry continues to grow.

“I would be careful of building any form of additional regulatory structure that’s extralegal,” Schmidt said in response when a member of the audience proposed the creation of a new federal agency to critique algorithms used by private companies.

Schmidt shared the stage with Marietje Schaake, a Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) fellow and Dutch former member of European Parliament who played a role in passage of GDPR regulation. She counterpointed that companies that say regulation may stifle innovation often assume technology is more important than democracy and the rule of law.

A hands-off approach on tech regulation has led to the creation of new monopolies, thrown journalism into turmoil, and allowed the balkanization of the internet, she said. Failure to act now, she added, could allow for AI to accelerate and amplify discrimination. She suggested systematic impact assessments to operate in parallel with AI research so that our understanding of negative impacts can mirror progress.

“I think it’s very clear that tech companies can all stay on the fence in taking a position in relation to values and rights. I personally believe that a rules-based system serves the public interest as well as collective rights and liberties the companies benefit from,” she said. “I see clear momentum now between the EU and U.S. and a significant part of the democratic world, where [we] can catch up to the civil regulatory gaps platforms and other digital services … anticipating the broader use of artificial intelligence.”

She also argued that big tech self-regulation efforts have failed and emphasized the need for empowering regulators in order to defend democracy.

“Because with great power should come great responsibility, or at least modesty,” she said. “Everyone has a role to play to strengthen the resilience of our democracy.”

Schaake and Schmidt spoke for more than an hour this morning at a symposium held by the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered AI about AI ethics, policy, and governance.

The debate between the two comes at a time when regulators in the United States have increased scrutiny of tech giants. Companies like Google currently face antitrust investigations from state attorneys general, and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has made the breakup of tech giants a central part of her campaign.

Last month, due to Schmidt’s potential role in issues ranging from Google’s project to enter mainland China to its work with the Department of Defense to its payout to Andy Rubin of $90 million despite sexual harassment allegations, a number of AI ethicists asked HAI to rescind its invitation to this event. Written by Tech Inquiry founder Jack Poulson, signatories include roughly 50 people, about a dozen of whom currently work as engineers at Google.

In response to the petition, HAI published a tweet warning against the dangers of “damaging intellectual blindness.”

Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board AI ethics recommendations and the report from the national security commission on AI - two committees that Schmidt oversees - are due out October 31 and November 5, respectively.

Both initiatives are aimed at helping the United States create a national AI strategy as roughly 30 other nations around have done, he said. Last week, founders of the Stanford center called for $120 billion in government spending over the course of the next decade as part of a national strategy.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×