Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, are among the thousands of people who have signed an open letter asking for a halt in the development of AI until appropriate safeguards are in place.
“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs,” the letter begins.
The letter, from Future of Life Institute, paints a dire picture of the current AI arms race, saying advanced artificial intelligent “could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.”
“Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control,” the letter continues.
“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,[3] and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? 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 civilisation? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders.
“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.”
Others are coming at this problem in a more official way.
“We need to hit the pause button and consider the risks of rapid deployment of generative AI models,” says Marc Rotenberg, founder and director of the Center for AI and Digital Policy, who plan to file a complaint with the FTC this week, asking for an investigation into OpenAI.
It is asking for the Federal Trade Commission to force OpenAI to halt development until “appropriate safeguards” are in place.
