Not everyone is on board with the rapid development of AI tools like ChatGPT, with a number of high-profile tech professionals calling for a six-month pause to address significant concerns about the tech.
AI advancement has been moving at a clip for the last few months, with Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI fueling the mad dash for artificial intelligence supremacy. The tech raises some serious concerns, though, considering studies have shown it could replace 80% of all jobs.
Fortunately, there are some sensible minds that are pushing back in the form of an open letter that calls for a temporary halt to AI advancement for the sake of humanity catching up.
Open Letter Calls for Halt to AI Advancement
An open letter from the Future of Life Institute is calling for a six-month pause on AI advancement, so that humanity can catch up and regulate it in a way that won't have a long-term negative impact on the economy and life overall.
“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable. This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system's potential effects.” – open letter from Future of Life Institute
As for what kind of risks the technology poses, the writing is already on the wall. The Pope, for example, made headlines this week for wearing an outlandishly white puffy coat, sparking memes and discourse about the leader of the Catholic Church. The problem? That never happened and the image in question was a deepfake.
These kinds of mix-ups are only going to get more common, considering even Microsoft admits the technology can often be “usefully incorrect.” That kind of inaccuracy is fine when it comes to basic work tasks, but as the tech gets more popular, it will likely impact more meaningful work, and not necessarily in a positive way.
Who Has Signed the Open Letter to Halt AI Development?
While the call to pause AI development for six months alone is a newsworthy piece of information, some of the people that have signed the open letter lend some serious credibility to the request. Here are some of the big names that have signed the open letter:
- Elon Musk – CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter
- Steve Wozniak – Cofounder of Apple
- Andrew Yang – 2020 Presidential Candidate
- Jaan Tallinn – Cofounder of Skype
- Evan Sharp – Cofounder of Pinterest
While Musk could potentially just be mad that a company is doing well without him, given his previous involvement with OpenAI, the other names on this list to the fact that this rapid AI development could, in fact, be a bit dangerous. Whether Microsoft and the other companies developing AI alternatives take note remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: The world is about to change because of AI, in one way or another.
