A number of prominent artificial intelligence experts, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s newly launched GPT-4 (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer). But a notable name is missing from the long list of signatures.
As of Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s name remains absent from the letter, and his comments about the concerns expressed in the missive suggest he has no plans to call for any type of halt on AI development.
Altman disagrees with the framing of the letter, arguing that his company takes AI safety not only seriously but more so than others in the industry, according to The Wall Street Journal‘s Deepa Seetharam. “We have, I think, been talking about these issues the loudest, with the most intensity, for the longest,” he told Seetharam.
The letter comes weeks after OpenAI unveiled the fourth version of its GPT program, which has both impressed and caused alarm with its ability to engage in human-like conversations and to excel in some of the most challenging standardized tests. The latest iteration can pass most Advanced Placement exams and score in the 90th percentile of the standardized bar exam.
The letter was issued by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, whose mission is to steer “transformative technology towards benefitting life and away from extreme large-scale risks—was signed by more than 1,000 people. It says that there should be a pause on advanced AI development until labs and independent experts can develop and implement safety protocols for these technologies.
“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 reads.
“This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors,” it says. “If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”
Among the signatories are Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque; Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; one of the “godfathers of AI,” Yoshua Bengio; Executive Director of the Center for Humane Technology Tristan Harris; pioneering AI researcher Stuart Russell; machine learning researcher Max Tegmark; and software developer Grady Booch.
There was earlier speculation that Altman did sign his name to the letter, but it was later confirmed that this was a false signature.
Also missing from the list of names is Jack Clark, the co-founder of Anthropic, an AI safety and research company founded by former members of OpenAI. The company also has a formal partnership with Google Cloud, and Google has invested nearly $400 million in Anthropic, heating up the company’s rivalry with OpenAI.
The letter comes weeks after OpenAI unveiled the fourth version of its GPT program, which has both impressed and caused alarm with its ability to engage in human-like conversations and to excel in some of the most challenging standardized tests. The latest iteration can pass most Advanced Placement exams and score in the 90th percentile of the standardized bar exam.
Although AI development continues to barrel forward, even OpenAI President Greg Brockman has cautioned that there are consequences with such technologies, including greater public trust in GPT-4, which can still be inaccurate sometimes.
“We believe there should be more AI regulation,” Brockman told Axios earlier this month. “You really need an educated public.”
Newsweek reached out by email to OpenAI for comment.
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