Elon Musk, 999 others sign open letter to halt AI development. Here's why
1 min read 29 Mar 2023, 06:57 PM ISTElon Musk, whose Tesla uses AI, has also signed the open letter along with other industry heavy weights citing ‘risks to society and humanity’
PremiumArtificial Intellegence has taken over people's curiosity and their news everyday. From Open AI's chatbot ChatGPT to several other AI tools, humans have been intrigued with the potential of these tools more than ever.
At such a time, Tesla Chief Elon Musk, along with several other industry experts have written an open letter to pause further developing the AI tools like OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4.
They have said that further development should be halted for another six months citing citing potential risks to society and humanity. The letter has been issued by the non-profit Future of Life Institute and signed by more than 1,000 people including Elon Musk.
The letter called for a pause on advanced AI development until shared safety protocols for such designs were developed, implemented and audited by independent experts. "Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," the letter said.
The letter detailed potential risks to society and civilization by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions, and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance and regulatory authorities.
Musk, whose carmaker Tesla is using AI for an autopilot system, has been vocal about his concerns about AI.
Co-signatories included Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and AI heavyweights Yoshua Bengio, often referred to as one of the "godfathers of AI", and Stuart Russell, a pioneer of research in the field.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI has unveiled the fourth iteration of its GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) AI program, which has wowed users with its vast range of applications, from engaging users in human-like conversation to composing songs and summarising lengthy documents.
Last week, OpenAI announced it had partnered with around a dozen firms to build their services into its chatbot, allowing ChatGPT users to order groceries via Instacart, or book flights through Expedia.
Since its release last year, OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted rivals to accelerate developing similar large language models, and companies to integrate generative AI models into their products.
(With inputs from Reuters)
