Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk and dozen of tech leaders have called for the pause of giant Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems with human competitive intelligence, which they say can pose profound risks to society and humanity.
With the rapid rate at which AI technology is advancing, these tech leaders suggest that the technology should be regulated and delivered only once there is confidence that its effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.
In an open letter from the future of life institute signed by Musk and a few tech leaders, they have called on AI labs to pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six (6) months.
The letter reads in part,
“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 the loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. 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”
These tech leaders, however, disclosed that the call for a pause on AI experiments is not in any way to hinder the development of the technology, rather it is a step taken backward from the dangerous race to AI tools with human competitive intelligence.
Also, AI ethicists are worried about biases and misinformation in the data that train AI models. Fears have also been raised about the possibility of jobs being lost to automation. On Tuesday, investment banking company Goldman Sachs warned that as many as 300 million jobs could be at risk of being wiped out by generative AI products.
It is interesting to know that with the hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has seen so many companies integrate AI-powered chatbots into their products, the U.K. government has urged regulators to come up with rules for AI.
Investors King understands that on Wednesday, the U.K. government published recommendations for the artificial intelligence industry, outlining an all-encompassing approach for regulating the technology at a time when it has reached frenzied levels of hype.
AI has no doubt been helpful to users and has also transformed a lot of industries, however, owing to the fact that AI technology is advancing so rapidly, it is vital to regulate its use and creation which would minimize its destructive potential.