Billionaire entrepreneur and Twitter chief Elon Musk and other tech leaders on Wednesday called for a pause in the development of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems to ensure their safety.
The demand was made in an open letter titled “Pause Giant AI Experiments” and has been signed by over 1,000 people, including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
The letter comes in response to the release of GPT-4 by San Francisco startup OpenAI, which is a more advanced version of its AI chatbot ChatGPT.
The authors of the letter argue that powerful AI systems should only be developed once their positive effects can be confirmed, and the risks they pose are manageable.
The letter suggests a six-month pause in the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 to develop safety protocols, AI governance systems, and ensure that AI systems are more accurate, safe, trustworthy and loyal.
The letter did not specify the dangers of GPT-4 but previous research has shown that chatbots can be potential sources of disinformation.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming increasingly popular in recent times. These systems are capable of generating content in response to user prompts, which can lead to significant disruption in the labour market.
According to Goldman Sachs research, the rise of generative AI could impact around 300 million full-time jobs globally.
