Elon Musk and Others Are Urging a Pause on Giant AI Experiments

Elon Musk and others are urging a pause on training systems more powerful than Giant AI

Among the 1,344 individuals on an open letter urging a pause on Giant AI experiments are Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and CEO of Stability AI Emad Mostaque.

Due to the risk of creating nonhuman minds that could eventually outwit humans, the letter urges all AI labs to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. The non-profit Future of Life Institute's open letter reads, "Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks."

The non-profit Future of Life Institute's open letter reads, "Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks." Should we create nonhuman minds that could eventually outnumber, outwit, become obsolete, and take our place? Should we put our civilization at a loss?

The letter, which comes just two weeks after OpenAI announced GPT-4, reads, "We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4." It also states that independent experts should develop, implement, and audit safety protocols.

In the letter, it was stated that "this does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities"

Numerous prominent individuals, including founders, CEOs, researchers, and others, have signed the letter. Among the signatories are, in addition to Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, AI titans Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell, author Yuval Noah Harari, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, Getty Images CEO Craig Peters, and Conjecture CEO Connor Leahy.

Responses to the letter were mixed via social media.

Arvind Narayanan, a professor at Princeton, predicted that it would only serve to fuel AI hype.

"The spirit is right, but the letter is not perfect: The letter was signed by New York University professor Gary Marcus. "We need to slow down until we better understand the ramifications." They are capable of causing serious harm; the major players are becoming increasingly secretive about what they are doing, making it difficult for society to defend itself against any potential harms."