Elon Musk, the billionaire tycoon, and a range of experts called on Wednesday for a pause in the creation of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems to allow time to make sure they are secure.
An open letter, signed by more than 1,000 people so far including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was prompted by the release of GPT-4 from San Francisco firm OpenAI. The firm says its latest model is more powerful than the last version, which was used to power ChatGPT, a bot capable of developing lots of text from the briefest of prompts.
AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.”
the open letter titled “Pause Giant AI Experiments” said
Musk was an initial investor in OpenAI, spent years on its board, and his electric-car firm Tesla creates AI systems to help power its self-driving technology, among other applications. The letter was signed by prominent critics as well as opponents of OpenAI like Stability AI chief Emad Mostaque.
The letter mentioned a blog written by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who recommended that “at some point, it may be necessary to get an independent review before beginning to prepare future systems”.
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.”
The authors of the open letter wrote.
They called for governments to step in and set a suspension if firms failed to agree. The six months should be used to develop safety protocols, and AI governance systems, and refocus research on assuring AI systems are more authentic, safe, “trustworthy, and loyal”.
