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Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts and industry executives are calling for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4, in an open letter that cites potential risks to society.
Key points:
- Earlier this month, the fourth version of Open AI's GPT program was released, which can engage with users in human-like conversation
- The open letter urging the pause was signed by more than 1,000 people, including some big names in AI
- EU police force Europol warned about the potential misuse of the system in phishing, disinformation and cybercrime
Earlier this month, Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled the fourth iteration of its GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) AI program, which has wowed users by engaging them in human-like conversation, composing songs and summarising lengthy documents.
"Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," said the letter issued by the Future of Life Institute.
The non-profit is primarily funded by the Musk Foundation, as well as London-based group Founders Pledge, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation, according to the European Union's transparency register.
"AI stresses me out," Mr Musk said earlier this month. He is one of the co-founders of industry leader OpenAI, and his car-maker Tesla uses AI for its autopilot system.
Mr Musk — who has expressed frustration over regulator efforts to regulate the autopilot system — has sought a regulatory authority to ensure that development of AI serves the public interest.
"It is … deeply hypocritical for Elon Musk to sign on, given how hard Tesla has fought against accountability for the defective AI in its self-driving cars," Cornell University professor of digital and information law James Grimmelmann said.
"A pause is a good idea, but the letter is vague and doesn't take the regulatory problems seriously."
Tesla last month had to recall more than 362,000 US vehicles to update software after US regulators said the driver-assistance system could cause crashes, prompting Mr Musk to tweet that the word "recall" for an over-the-air software update is "anachronistic and just flat wrong!"
Outnumber, outsmart, obsolete
OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the open letter, which urged a pause on advanced AI development until shared safety protocols were developed independent experts and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance.
"Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? … Should we develop non-human minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?" the letter asked, saying "such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders."
The letter was signed by more than 1,000 people, including Mr Musk.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman was not among those who signed the letter, neither were Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, chief executives of Alphabet and Microsoft.
Co-signatories included Stability AI chief executive Emad Mostaque, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and AI heavyweights Yoshua Bengio, who is often referred to as one of the "godfathers of AI", and Stuart Russell, a pioneer of research in the field.
The concerns come as ChatGPT attracts US lawmakers' attention, with questions about its impact on national security and education.
EU police force Europol warned on Monday about the potential misuse of the system in phishing attempts, disinformation and cybercrime.
Meanwhile, the UK government has unveiled proposals for an "adaptable" regulatory framework around AI.
The AI race
"The letter isn't perfect, but the spirit is right: We need to slow down until we better understand the ramifications," said New York University professor Gary Marcus, who signed the letter.
"The big players are becoming increasingly secretive about what they are doing, which makes it hard for society to defend against whatever harms may materialise."
Since its release last year, OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted rivals to accelerate developing similar large language models and companies including Alphabet Inc are racing to steep their products in AI.
Investors, wary of relying on a single company, are embracing competitors to OpenAI.
Microsoft declined to comment on the letter and Alphabet did not respond to calls and emails for a comment.
"A lot of the power to develop these systems has been constantly in the hands of few companies that have the resources to do it," Brown University professor and former assistant director in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Suresh Venkatasubramanian said.
"That's how these models are, they're hard to build and they're hard to democratise."
Reuters