Musk and other tech leaders call for stopping the development of artificial intelligence before it’s too late
Elon Musk and dozens of other tech leaders have called on AI labs to stop developing systems that can rival human intelligence.
In an open letter from the Future of Life Institute, signed by Musk, Apple co-chair Steve Wozniak, and 2020 US presidential candidate Andrew Yang, AI labs are called upon to shut down the most powerful training models from G. GPT-4, the latest version of the large language paradigm, developed by the US startup OpenAI.
“Contemporary artificial intelligence systems are now able to compete with humans in public tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we allow machines to flood our information channels with propaganda and lies?” the letter states.
The letter also stated: “Should we automate all jobs, including: satisfactory jobs? Should we develop non-human brains that may eventually outnumber, outsmart, and advance us, and replace us? Should we risk losing control of our civilization? “Such decisions should not be delegated to unelected technical leaders,” the letter added.
The Future of Life Institute is a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that campaigns for the responsible and ethical development of artificial intelligence. Among its founders: MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark and co-founder of Skype Jan Tallen.
The institute has previously secured commitments from the likes of Musk, and the Google-owned artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, not to develop lethal, autonomous weapons systems.
The institute said it was calling on all AI labs to “immediately stop, for at least 6 months, training AI systems stronger than (GPT-4)”.
The Large Language Model (GPT-4), which was launched earlier this month, is believed to be much more advanced than its predecessor (GPT-3).
“If such a suspension cannot be implemented quickly, governments should intervene and impose a suspension,” the letter added.
ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, amazed researchers with its ability to produce human-like responses to user requests. By January, the bot had attracted one million monthly active users, less than two months after its launch, making it the fastest growing consumer app in history.
The technology is trained on huge amounts of data from the internet and has been used to create everything. From poetry in the style of (William Shakespeare) to drafting legal opinions in court cases.
But AI ethicists have also raised concerns about potential abuses of the technology, such as plagiarism and disinformation.
Musk has previously said that he believes AI poses one of the “greatest risks” to civilization. Noting that the CEO of the electric car maker (Tesla) and the space industry company (SpaceX) is also one of the founders of (Open AI), but he left the company’s board of directors in 2018 and no longer owns a stake in it. He has criticized the company several times recently, saying he believes it is straying from its original intent.
