Some of the biggest names in tech including Elon Musk, Tesla chief, Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder and Emad Mostaque, Stability AI CEO are calling for a pause on training systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched model GPT-4. The tech leaders were among 1,377 signatories of an open letter requesting a pause on giant AI experiments.
The letter has asked AI labs to pause training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 that was recently launched by OpenAI. The reason according to the letter is the risk of creating a nonhuman mind that has the power to eventually outsmart humans. The letter further added that the AI labs have become a part of an 'out of control' race for developing an even more powerful mind that will not come under control of anyone including their creators.
The letter has been signed by a host of high-profile names mentioned above and other researchers and CEOs and more. The list also includes AI heavyweights Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell, Getty Images CEO Craig Peters, author Yuval Noah Harari, Conjecture CEO Connor Leahy and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp,
The letter that was posted by Future of Life Institute, a non profit funded by Musk:
"AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research[1] and acknowledged by top AI labs.[2] As stated in the widely-endorsed Asilomar AI Principles, 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. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs 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.
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, 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. This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system's potential effects. OpenAI's recent statement regarding artificial general intelligence, states that "At some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of computers used for creating new models." We agree. That point is now.
Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.
AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt. This does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.
AI research and development should be refocused on making today's powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate, safe, interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy, and loyal.
In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems. These should at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI; oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems and large pools of computational capability; provenance and watermarking systems to help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks; a robust auditing and certification ecosystem; liability for AI-caused harm; robust public funding for technical AI safety research; and well-resourced institutions for coping with the dramatic economic and political disruptions (especially to democracy) that AI will cause.
Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with AI. Having succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy an "AI summer" in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt. Society has hit pause on other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects on society. We can do so here. Let's enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall."
Will the letter be beneficial?
The letter that was signed by many tech leaders did not go into the details of the dangers revealed by GPT-4, which should actually have been the basis of the open letter. Which means that the letter may not really benefit anyone but only those that want to be prepared for the competition.
