"It's too dangerous": Elon Musk and tech company heads call for a halt to AI development
- We are talking about a pause for at least six months
- Allegedly further development of AI is a danger to society
- Signatories include heads of major tech companies, including Musk and Wozniak
Last week, the Future of Life Institute (FOLI) published an open letter calling for a halt to the development of AI-based products. According to the signatories, the technology could cause profound transformational changes in society, both positive and negative.
You can read the letter itself directly here. The signatories include Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Andrew Yang and others. A total of 1,362 people have agreed to the appeal.
These are heads and line managers of technology companies, engineers and developers, entrepreneurs and IT specialists. They all believe that a further "race" in this market is dangerous.
The institute is calling on all companies to suspend development and research on more powerful systems than GPT-4 for six months. Among other things, it says AI is a "competitor" that poses a danger to human society:
"Increasingly advanced AI will unequivocally affect the history of life on Earth. We must plan this process carefully and then carefully control it by allocating commensurate resources," the letter says.
GPT-4 was introduced on 14 March. According to some estimates, this version is 10 times more advanced than the original version. For example, the chatbot successfully passed the rather rigorous US SAT exams, giving 90% correct answers. Interestingly, Elon Musk has previously announced plans to develop AI-powered solutions. That is not surprising given the fever that has literally gripped the market.