Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque are among the signees on a new open letter list. One calling for “AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”
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The open letter titled “Pause Giant AI Experiments,” published by Future of Life Institute has more than 1,300 people from the tech industry and academia on board.
The last few months have seen an explosion in AI models, driven by the success of large-scale projects like ChatGPT. And the recent debut of GPT-4 has seen the previously text-only AI advance into audio, video, and images.
And it’s been hard to keep up with all of the plugins and developments, as AI models have been spotted sending emails, writing code, and even doing real-world tasks like booking appointments and flights.
Something as seemingly simple as AI-generated images is now indistinguishable from the real thing, which is an obvious concern. The open letter notes that AI labs worldwide are currently in “an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds.”
“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs,” the open letter states. “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.”
The tone is alarming, specifying the pause in AI development should be public and verifiable. And if it’s not “enacted quickly,” governments should step in. With so many of these tools and models being made public the moment they are released, it is clear that things are progressing at a speed that no one can comprehend.