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by James Vincent
Mar 29, 2023
from
TheVerge Website
Photo by Justin Sullivan/
Getty
Images
An open
letter says
the current race
dynamic in AI
is dangerous,
and calls for
the creation of
independent
regulators
to ensure future
systems
are safe to
deploy.
A number of well-known AI researchers - and Elon Musk - have
signed an open letter
calling on AI labs around the world to pause development of
large-scale AI systems, citing fears over the "profound risks to
society and humanity" they claim this software poses.
The letter, published by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute,
notes that AI labs are currently locked in an "out-of-control race"
to develop and deploy machine learning systems,
"that no one - not
even their creators - can understand, predict, or reliably
control."
"We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6
months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4."
"Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at
least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than
GPT-4," says the letter.
"This pause should be
public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a
pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and
institute a moratorium."
Signatories include,
...and a number of
well-known AI researchers and CEOs, including,
-
Stuart Russell
-
Yoshua Bengio
-
Gary Marcus
-
Emad Mostaque
The full list of
signatories can be seen
here, though new names should be
treated with caution as there are reports of names being added to
the list as a joke (e.g. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, an individual who is
partly responsible for the current race dynamic in AI).
The letter is unlikely to have any effect on the current climate in
AI research, which has seen tech companies like
Google and
Microsoft rush to deploy new
products, often sidelining previously-avowed concerns over safety
and ethics.
But it is a sign of the
growing opposition to this "ship it now and fix it later" approach;
an opposition that could potentially make its way into the political
domain for consideration by actual legislators.
As noted in the letter, even OpenAI itself has expressed the
potential need for "independent review" of future AI systems to
ensure they meet safety standards.
The signatories say that this time
has now come.
"AI labs and
independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and
implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI
design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen
by independent outside experts," they write.
"These protocols
should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a
reasonable doubt."
You can read the letter
here below:
Pause
Giant AI Experiments
An Open Letter...
April 03, 2023
from
FutureOfLife Website
We
call on all AI labs
to
immediately pause
for at least
6 months
the training
of AI systems
more
powerful than GPT-4...
AI systems
with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks
to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research
[1] and acknowledged by top AI labs.
[2]
As stated
in the widely-endorsed
Asilomar AI Principles,
Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history
of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with
commensurate care and resources.
Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not
happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs
locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever
more powerful digital minds that no one - not even their
creators - can understand, predict, or reliably control.
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive
at general tasks, [3] and we must ask
ourselves:
Should we let machines flood our information
channels with propaganda and untruth?
Should we automate away all the jobs, including the
fulfilling ones?
Should we develop nonhuman minds that might
eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?
Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?
Such
decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders.
Powerful AI systems should
be developed only once we are confident that their effects
will be positive and their risks will be manageable.
This
confidence must be well justified and increase with the
magnitude of a system's potential effects.
OpenAI's
recent statement regarding artificial
general intelligence, states that,
"At some point, it may be
important to get independent review before starting to
train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts
to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for
creating new models."
We agree.
That point is now.
Therefore,
we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for
at least 6 months the training of AI systems more
powerful than GPT-4.
This pause
should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors.
If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments
should step in and institute a moratorium.
AI labs and
independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop
and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced
AI design and development that are rigorously audited and
overseen by independent outside experts.
These
protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are
safe beyond a reasonable doubt. [4]
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.
AI research
and development should be refocused on making today's
powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate, safe,
interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy,
and loyal.
In
parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to
dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance
systems.
These
should at a minimum include:
-
new
and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI
-
oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems
and large pools of computational capability
-
provenance and watermarking systems to help
distinguish real from synthetic and to track model
leaks
-
a
robust auditing and certification ecosystem
-
liability for AI-caused harm
-
robust public funding for technical AI safety
research
-
well-resourced institutions for coping with the
dramatic economic and political disruptions
(especially to democracy) that AI will cause...
Humanity
can enjoy a flourishing future with AI.
Having
succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy
an "AI summer" in which we reap the rewards, engineer these
systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a
chance to adapt.
Society has
hit pause on other technologies with potentially
catastrophic effects on society. [5]
We can do
so here.
Let's enjoy
a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall.
Notes and References
-
-
Ordonez, V.
et al. (2023, March 16).
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AI will
reshape society, acknowledges risks: 'A little bit scared of
this'. ABC News.
-
-
-
Signatories
-
Yoshua
Bengio, Founder
and Scientific Director at Mila, Turing Prize winner and
professor at University of Montreal
-
Stuart
Russell,
Berkeley, Professor of Computer Science, director of the
Center for Intelligent Systems, and co-author of the
standard textbook "Artificial Intelligence: a Modern
Approach"
-
Elon Musk,
CEO of SpaceX, Tesla & Twitter
-
Steve
Wozniak,
Co-founder, Apple
-
Yuval Noah
Harari, Author
and Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
-
Emad
Mostaque, CEO,
Stability AI,
...and,
-
Andrew Yang,
Forward Party, Co-Chair, Presidential Candidate 2020, NYT
Bestselling Author, Presidential Ambassador of Global
Entrepreneurship
-
John J Hopfield,
Princeton University, Professor Emeritus, inventor of
associative neural networks
-
Valerie Pisano,
President & CEO, MILA
-
Connor Leahy,
CEO, Conjecture
-
Kate Jerome,
Children's Book Author/ Cofounder Little Bridges,
Award-winning children's book author, C-suite publishing
executive, and intergenerational thought-leader
-
Jaan Tallinn,
Co-Founder of Skype, Centre for the Study of Existential
Risk, Future of Life Institute
-
Evan Sharp,
Co-Founder, Pinterest
-
Chris Larsen,
Co-Founder, Ripple
-
Craig Peters,
Getty Images, CEO
-
Max Tegmark,
MIT Center for Artificial Intelligence & Fundamental
Interactions, Professor of Physics, president of Future of
Life Institute
-
Anthony Aguirre,
University of California, Santa Cruz, Executive Director of
Future of Life Institute, Professor of Physics
-
Sean O'Heigeartaigh,
Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for the Study of
Existential Risk
-
Tristan Harris,
Executive Director, Center for Humane Technology
-
Rachel Bronson,
President, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
-
Danielle Allen,
Harvard University, Professor and Director, Edmond and Lily
Safra Center for Ethics
-
Marc Rotenberg,
Center for AI and Digital Policy, President
-
Nico Miailhe,
The Future Society (TFS), Founder and President
-
Nate Soares,
MIRI, Executive Director
-
Andrew Critch,
Founder and President, Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative,
CEO, Encultured AI, PBC; AI Research Scientist, UC Berkeley.
-
Mark Nitzberg,
Center for Human-Compatible AI, UC Berkeley, Executive
Directer
-
Yi Zeng,
Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Professor and Director, Brain-inspired Cognitive
Intelligence Lab, International Research Center for AI
Ethics and Governance, Lead Drafter of Beijing AI Principles
-
Steve Omohundro,
Beneficial AI Research, CEO
-
Meia Chita-Tegmark,
Co-Founder, Future of Life Institute
-
Victoria Krakovna,
DeepMind, Research Scientist, co-founder of Future of Life
Institute
-
Emilia Javorsky,
Physician-Scientist & Director, Future of Life Institute
-
Mark Brakel,
Director of Policy, Future of Life Institute
-
Aza Raskin,
Center for Humane Technology / Earth Species Project,
Cofounder, National Geographic Explorer, WEF Global AI
Council
-
Gary Marcus,
New York University, AI researcher, Professor Emeritus
-
Vincent Conitzer,
Carnegie Mellon University and University of Oxford,
Professor of Computer Science, Director of Foundations of
Cooperative AI Lab, Head of Technical AI Engagement at the
Institute for Ethics in AI, Presidential Early Career Award
in Science and Engineering, Computers and Thought Award,
Social Choice and Welfare Prize, Guggenheim Fellow, Sloan
Fellow, ACM Fellow, AAAI Fellow, ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents
Research Award
-
Huw Price,
University of Cambridge, Emeritus Bertrand Russell Professor
of Philosophy, FBA, FAHA, co-foundor of the Cambridge Centre
for Existential Risk
-
Zachary Kenton,
DeepMind, Senior Research Scientist
-
Ramana Kumar,
DeepMind, Research Scientist
-
Jeff Orlowski-Yang,
The Social Dilemma, Director, Three-time Emmy Award Winning
Filmmaker
-
Olle Häggström,
Chalmers University of Technology, Professor of mathematical
statistics, Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Science
-
Michael Osborne,
University of Oxford, Professor of Machine Learning
-
Raja Chatila,
Sorbonne University, Paris, Professor Emeritus AI, Robotics
and Technology Ethics, Fellow, IEEE
-
Tom Diethe,
AstraZeneca, Head of Machine Learning , 20+ years of
industry experience in machine learning
-
Moshe Vardi,
Rice University, University Professor, US National Academy
of Science, US National Academy of Engineering, American
Academy of Arts and Sciences
-
Adam Smith,
Boston University, Professor of Computer Science, Gödel
Prize, Kanellakis Prize, Fellow of the ACM
-
Marco Venuti,
Director, Thales group
-
Daron Acemoglu,
MIT, professor of Economics, Nemmers Prize in Economics,
John Bates Clark Medal, and fellow of National Academy of
Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British
Academy, American Philosophical Society, Turkish Academy of
Sciences.
-
Christof Koch,
MindScope Program, Allen Institute, Seattle, Chief Scientist
-
Gaia Dempsey,
Metaculus, CEO, Schmidt Futures Innovation Fellow
-
Henry Elkus,
Founder & CEO: Helena
-
Gaétan Marceau Caron,
MILA, Quebec AI Institute, Director, Applied Research Team
-
Peter Asaro,
The New School, Associate Professor and Director of Media
Studies
-
Jose H. Orallo,
Technical University of Valencia, Leverhulme Centre for the
Future of Intelligence, Centre for the Study of Existential
Risk, Professor, EurAI Fellow
-
George Dyson,
Unafilliated, Author of "Darwin Among the Machines" (1997),
"Turing's Cathedral" (2012), "Analogia: The Emergence of
Technology beyond Programmable Control" (2020).
-
Nick Hay,
Encultured AI, Co-founder
-
Shahar Avin,
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of
Cambridge, Senior Research Associate
-
Solon Angel,
AI Entrepreneur, Forbes, World Economic Forum Recognized
-
Gillian Hadfield,
University of Toronto, Schwartz Reisman Institute for
Technology and Society, Professor and Director
-
Erik Hoel,
Tufts University, Professor, author, scientist, Forbes 30
Under 30 in science
-
Grady Booch,
ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, IEEE Computing Pioneer, IBM Fellow
-
Scott Cameron,
Instadeep Ltd, and Oxford University, AI Researcher
-
Jinan Nimkur,
Efficient Research Dynamic, CEO, Member, Nigerian Institute
of Science Laboratory Technology
-
J.M.Don MacElroy,
University College Dublin, Emeritus Chair of Chemical
Engineering
-
Alfonso Ngan,
Hong Kong University, Chair in Materials Science and
Engineering
-
Robert Brandenberger,
McGill University, Professor of Physics,
...and
many more.
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