Why do the leaders of the technology world want to temporarily suspend the development of artificial intelligence?
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“ We prompt laboratories working on developing artificial intelligence systems stronger than GPT- 4 to suspend similar development of artificial intelligence for at least six months. This suspension should be made public and verifiable. If such a temporary suspension is not implemented soon, then the government should take appropriate action by imposing a temporary ban.”
The above words are written in an open letter, about which a lot of discussion has already started in various circles. Those who wrote or signed the letter requested that efforts to improve the recently opened GPT-4 be suspended for at least six months. The letter also mentioned that this suspension should be properly implemented. However, nothing has been said about how the authenticity of this suspension will be verified. If necessary, government intervention is also reported.
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The open letter in which the above calls have been made, is published by a non-profit organization named 'Future of Life Institute'. Misuse of technology poses a threat to people's lives, which is what this organization works on. On November 30 last year, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company, released an artificial intelligence chatbot named ChatGPT to everyone. If you ask a question or give instructions to this chatbot, the question will be answered in a very short time or the information requested in the instructions will be given. Although the discussion and criticism about artificial intelligence has been going on more or less before, it has gained a new dimension after the release of this chatbot. On March 14 this year, OpenAI announced the release of the fourth version of the GPT series, 'GPT-4'. It was more efficient and accurate than its previous version.
With the release of GPT-4, it's clear from past experience that Microsoft and OpenAI are continuing to push for a better version of artificial intelligence. In addition to these two discussions, many other laboratories continue to work on developing artificial intelligence systems more powerful than GPT-4. In view of this, an open letter was published on March 22, where more than eleven hundred scientists, technology leaders and entrepreneurs have signed so far. Among the signatories are the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Joshua Benzio and Yuval Noah Harari. Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla, a leading car manufacturing company. Steve Wozniak is the co-founder of the famous technology company 'Apple'. Joshua Benzio is an award-winning artificial intelligence researcher and Yuval Harari is the author of the well-known book 'Sapiens'.
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Image Source: Merco Press |
The letter originally asked for at least six months to adapt to the latest artificial intelligence technology. As seen in the past, people have consistently adapted to the advancement of technology from one generation to the next. But recently, as one AI system after another has been opened up to innovation and the general public, chaos and disorganization have been noticed. As a result, scientists, researchers and technology world leaders have called for confirmation of the time required to prepare to advance from one stage to another.
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Image source: Scripps News |
Artificial intelligence labs have yet to say anything significant in response to the letter at the heart of the discussion. An OpenAI spokesperson said they haven't started working on more advanced AI systems yet. Many critics of this letter say that it is impossible to stop the development of technology. With the recent buzz and immense potential created by artificial intelligence systems, there is no guarantee that organizations working with artificial intelligence will so easily turn back from the path of new versions. But if the temporary moratorium proposal is accepted, it will save a lot of future chaos and disaster.