As of this writing, more than 1,100 signatories, including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Tristan Harris of the Center for Human Technologies, have signed an open letter calling for “all AI labs to immediately stop training for at least 6 months. AI systems are more powerful than GPT-4.” The letter says:
Modern artificial intelligence systems are now becoming competitive for tasks common to humans.[3] and we must ask ourselves: Should we allow machines to flood our information channels with propaganda and lies? Should we automate all jobs, including those that are done? Should we develop non-human minds that may eventually outnumber us, surpass us, become obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk control of our civilization? Such decisions should not be delegated to unelected technology leaders. Powerful AI systems should only be developed when we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks manageable.
It goes on to claim that there is a “level of planning and management” that is “not happening” and that instead, unnamed AI labs have been “locked in an uncontrolled race to develop and evolve” in recent months. launch more powerful digital minds that no one, not even their creators, can understand, predict, or reliably control.”
The letter’s signatories, some of them experts in artificial intelligence, say the pause they are asking for must be “public and verifiable and include all key players.” If that moratorium “cannot be quickly implemented, governments should step in and impose a moratorium,” the letter continued.
We’re still digesting this one (while the others are). tearing it up)
Of course, it’s just as interesting to the people who signed on, which includes some Meta and Google engineers; Emad Mostak, founder and CEO of Stability AI; and people who aren’t tech-savvy, including self-proclaimed electricians and beauticians, and who don’t. No one from OpenAI, the GPT-4 broad-language model outfit, signed this letter, for example. No one at Anthropic, whose team spun off OpenAI to create a “safer” AI chatbot, did.
In the meantime, you can read it in full here.