An open letter to the United States government has called for mass restrictions to be placed on huge AI projects such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Signed by 1000 AI experts, and billionaire Elon Musk, the letter is demanding the pausing of AI development.
Issued by the non-profit Future of Life Institute, the letter cites numerous risks to society that rapidly evolving artificial intelligence poses. The letter asks the government to enforce a pause in development until numerous boundaries are established.
In the letter, the Institute asks for a six-month ban on companies creating AI projects that are more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4. As GPT-4 has already released, the Institute aims to stop the race to create more intelligence systems.
“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity," reads the letter. “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable."
The Institute claims that the six-month halt in development will allow AI developers to create shared safety protocols to protect society. While individual companies do have AI ethics researchers, they have often been sidelined. For example, famous ex-Google researcher Timnit Gebru was ousted from the company after pointing out issues with ongoing research.
The open letter demands for AI safety protocols that helps protect human users “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
“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," reads the statement. “These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt."
Alongside hundreds of AI experts and developers, the open letter is also signed by a number of famous tech leaders. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Center for Humane Technology director Tristan Harris and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
With the rapid rise of free AI services such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, many are worried that AI tech will replace jobs. This isn’t without merit, either. AI tech is already replacing voice actors and stealing artwork from real-life designers. Where is the line?