An open letter signed by Elon Musk and a host of prominent academics has warned AI labs to pause development or risk unleashing catastrophic perils on society.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been moving at an unbelievable speed in recent months, with the launch of various tools and bots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Bard, and more. Yet this rapid development is causing serious concern among seasoned veterans in the AI field — so much so that over 1,000 of them have signed an open letter calling on AI developers to slam on the brakes.
The letter was published on the website of the Future of Life Institute, an organization whose stated mission is “steering transformative technology towards benefitting life and away from extreme large-scale risks.” Among the signatories are several prominent academics, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
The article calls for all companies working on AI models that are more powerful than the recently released GPT-4 to immediately halt work for at least six months. This moratorium should be “public and verifiable” and would allow time 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.
