Artificial intelligence experts criticize letter supported by Musk that cites his research.
Critics accuse the organization behind the letter of prioritizing imaginary chaotic scenarios instead of immediate concerns, such as programming with racist or sexist biases.
LONDON (Reuters) - Four artificial intelligence experts have expressed concern after their work was cited in a... An open letter -- co-signed by Elon Musk -- demanding an urgent pause in the research..
The letter, dated March 22 and with over 1.800 signatures as of Friday, calls for a six-month pause in the development of systems "more powerful" than the Microsoft-backed OpenAI's new GPT-4, which can hold human-like conversations, compose music, and summarize lengthy documents.
Since the predecessor to GPT-4, ChatGPT, was launched last year, competing companies have been rushing to release similar products.
The open letter states that AI systems with "competitive human intelligence" pose profound risks to humanity, citing 12 expert studies, including academics from universities, as well as current and former employees of OpenAI, Google, and its subsidiary DeepMind.
Since then, civil society groups in the United States and the European Union have been pressing lawmakers to regulate OpenAI's research, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Critics accuse the Future of Life Institute (FLI), which is primarily funded by the Musk Foundation and is behind the letter, of prioritizing imaginary apocalyptic scenarios over more immediate concerns about AI, such as the programming of racist or sexist biases into machines.
Among the research cited is a well-known article by Margaret Mitchell, who previously oversaw AI ethics research at Google.
Mitchell, now chief ethics scientist at AI firm Hugging Face, criticized the letter, telling Reuters that it's unclear what counts as "more powerful than GPT4".
"By treating many questionable ideas as a given, the letter affirms a set of priorities and a narrative about AI that benefits FLI supporters," she said. "Ignoring active harm now is a privilege that some of us don't have."
Its co-authors Timnit Gebru and Emily M. Bender criticized the letter on Twitter, with Bender calling some of the letter's claims "unbalanced."
FLI President Max Tegmark told Reuters that the campaign is not an attempt to impede OpenAI's corporate advantage.
"It's almost hilarious. I've seen people say, 'Elon Musk is trying to slow down the competition,'" he said, adding that Musk had no role in drafting the letter. "This isn't about a company."