CAMBRIDGE, MA (CelebrityAccess) – Tesla and Space-X CEO Elon Musk and dozens of other technology leaders have called on Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs to immediately pause systems development for at least six months that can compete with human-level intelligence.
In an open letter from the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, signed by Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and many others, they urge AI training and development labs to cease training models more potent than (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) GPT-4, the latest version of the powerful language model software developed by US company, OpenAI.
In the letter, they state, “Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.” They detail how AI labs are in an “out-of-control” race to develop and deploy more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.”
Those are formidable words from the world’s most powerful and influential tech minds.
The open letter comes as just this month, Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled the fourth iteration of its GPT AI (GPT-4) program (ChatGPT), which has a broad range of applications, from engaging users with humanlike responses, creating poetry, composing songs, and summarizing documents.
ChatGPT has accumulated 100 million monthly active users since its launch in January – making it the fastest-growing consumer app in history. It’s also the most advanced AI system ever, which has managed to amaze and unnerve AI experts with its capabilities.
On Monday (March 27), the European Union (EU) police force – Europol, joined those whose concerns over advanced AI like ChatGPT warn about the potential downfalls of the system, with users attempting phishing, misinformation, plagiarism, and cybercrime.
On Wednesday (March 29), the UK government released a policy paper calling for an “adaptable regulatory framework around AI.” The government’s submission would split responsibility for governing AI between its regulators for human rights, health and safety, and competition rather than create a new body dedicated solely to the technology.
The open letter has its critics, with some stating the claims around AI’s current technology have been exaggerated. Reuters.com reports Johanna Björklund, an AI researcher and associate professor at Umeå University, had this to say:
“These kinds of statements are meant to raise hype. It’s meant to get people worried. I don’t think there’s a need to pull the handbrake. If you do AI research, you should be very transparent about how you do it.”
According to US News, the Future of Life Institute is primarily funded by the Musk Foundation, London-based effective altruism group Founders Pledge, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Notably, Musk is also one of the co-founders of OpenAI, though he left the board in 2018 and no longer holds a stake in the company. He has criticized the organization several times recently, saying he believes it is diverging from its original purpose.
The open letter has over 1,200 signatures, including Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, Sapiens author Yuval Noah Hararias, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, tech subject matter expert (SME) Yoshua Bengion, often called one of the “godfathers of AI,” and AI research pioneer, Stuart Russell.
Sam Altman, Chief Executive at OpenAI, hasn’t added his “John Hancock” to the open letter as of press time.
