How do you know if an artificial intelligence system is so powerful that it poses a security danger and shouldn’t be unleashed without careful oversight? For regulators trying to put guardrails on AI, it’s mostly about the arithmetic. Rules or proposed regulations set by California, the U.S. federal government and the European Union all set a threshold of mathematical calculations per second. Too high and the AI model deserves special scrutiny to ensure it won't pose grave risks. AI safety advocates see it as an imperfect starting point for setting safeguards. Critics say it makes no sense to regulate math.
