Elon Musk and researchers ask for pause on ‘dangerous race’ to improve AI
Christopher Hutton
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Elon Musk and dozens of other technology leaders asked artificial intelligence developers to put a temporary pause on AI training to limit dangers to humanity.
Musk and the others released an open letter on Wednesday warning about the advances of AI. The tech moguls implored AI labs to take at least six months off from training AI systems that are more powerful than GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest version of the software. Musk was joined by other tech industry veterans, academics, and high-profile people, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Pinterest founder Evan Sharp, and former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
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“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?” the letter argued. “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 loss of control of our civilization?”
“We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4,” the letter requested. “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.”
OpenAI revealed GPT-4, the latest version of its chatbot, on March 14. The bot offers more complex and faster responses than its predecessor and the ability to use images as inputs. It was also incorporated into an assortment of products, including Salesforce and Bing.
Musk called AI “one of the biggest risks” to civilization at a February appearance at the World Government Summit.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that risk is in AI. “We’ve got to be careful here. I think people should be happy that we are a little bit scared of this,” he said recently.