Tracking the Explosive World of Generative AI

Citing "Profound Risks to Society," Prominent AI Experts Call for Pause

Citing “profound risks to society,” prominent tech leaders and AI researchers, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, are urging a temporary halt to the rapid development of powerful AI tools. But it’s not clear the industry will heed this call.

Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Source: Reuters

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Over 1000 prominent AI experts and technology luminaries, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, have called for a six-month pause in the development of AI tools.
The signers say their primary goal is to create a window of time to establish safety standards for AI design and mitigate future harm.
However, the rapid traction of generative AI means major players like Microsoft and Google will likely not back off from an arms race with existential consequences.

By Michael Zhang

March 29, 2023

Prominent tech leaders and AI researchers, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, are urging a temporary halt to the rapid development of powerful AI tools, citing “profound risks to society.”

In an open letter coordinated by the Future of Life Institute, the group called for a moratorium of at least six months to establish safety standards for AI design and prevent potential harm from high-risk AI technologies. Signatories include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and representatives from Stability AI and the Center for Humane Technology.

The letter does not demand a complete halt to AI development but suggests a pause on systems more advanced than Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI's GPT-4. OpenAI officials insist they have not yet begun training GPT-5 and emphasize the importance of safety in their development process.

Elon Musk, one of the letter’s signers who has notably voiced repeated warnings in the past about the dangers of AI, did not seem to have high hopes the letter would accomplish its purpose. Developers of the AI technology “will not heed this warning, but at least it was said,” he tweeted on Wednesday. At a Tesla investor day earlier in the month, Musk told the audience, “A.I. stresses me out. It’s quite dangerous technology.”

The call for a pause clashes with the tech industry's enthusiasm for generative AI, which has gained traction with companies like Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Zoom, and Salesforce. Major players like Microsoft see immense commercial potential in generative AI, and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella has identified rapid velocity in improving its AI capabilities as one of its biggest goals.

“A race starts today,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said last month. “We’re going to move, and move fast.” After ChatGPT’s launch took the world by storm, Google declared a “code red” in the company, accelerating its release of AI tools and its Bard chatbot and making AI its central priority.