The past few years have definitely been an acceleration of numerous unique events and digital advancements in our world. One such acceleration was the divergent development of more powerful intelligent systems, as entrepreneurs saw a chance to exploit a new branch of artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology nearing maturity.
“In an open letter posted online this Tuesday evening (U.S. Time), more than 1,100 signatories, including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology, have signed the open letter calling on ‘all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.‘
The letter reads:
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,[3] and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.
The letter argues that there is a “level of planning and management” that is “not happening,” and that instead, in recent months, unnamed “AI labs” have been “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.”
For more information, the above extract is from Tech Crunch, Connie Loizos‘ article. Ref: https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/28/1100-notable-signatories-just-signed-an-open-letter-asking-all-ai-labs-to-immediately-pause-for-at-least-6-months/
The open letter with the Signatories is published by the Future of Life Institute. Ref: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
Related articles on the subject:
- https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-pause-ai-experiments-open-letter/
- https://www.digitaljournal.com/business/musk-and-experts-call-for-halt-in-giant-ai-experiments/article
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebjkD1Om4uw
Of note is Connie Loizos‘ YouTube Interview with OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman, regarding OpenAI’s ChatGPT.