AI experts disown Musk-backed campaign citing their research
Corrects paragraph 6 in April 1 story to show the Musk Foundation is a major (not the primary) donor to FLI
By Martin Coulter
LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) -Four artificial intelligence experts have expressed concern after their work was cited in an open letter – co-signed by Elon Musk – demanding an urgent pause in research.
The letter, dated March 22 and with more than 1,800 signatures by Friday, called for a six-month circuit-breaker in the development of systems "more powerful" than Microsoft-backed MSFT.O OpenAI's new GPT-4, which can hold human-like conversation, compose songs and summarise lengthy documents.
Since GPT-4's predecessor ChatGPT was released last year, rival companies have rushed to launch similar products.
The open letter says AI systems with "human-competitive intelligence" pose profound risks to humanity, citing 12 pieces of research from experts including university academics as well as current and former employees of OpenAI, Google GOOGL.O and its subsidiary DeepMind.
Civil society groups in the U.S. and EU have since pressed lawmakers to rein in OpenAI's research. OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Critics have accused the Future of Life Institute (FLI), the organisation behind the letter,of prioritising imagined apocalyptic scenarios over more immediate concerns about AI, such as racist or sexist biases. The Musk Foundation is amajor donor to FLI.
Among the research cited was "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots", a paper co-authored by Margaret Mitchell, who previously oversaw ethical AI research at Google.
Mitchell, now chief ethical scientist at AI firm Hugging Face, criticised the letter, telling Reuters it was unclear what counted as "more powerful than GPT4".
"By treating a lot of questionable ideas as a given, the letter asserts a set of priorities and a narrative on AI that benefits the supporters of FLI," she said. "Ignoring active harms right now is a privilege that some of us don't have."
Mitchell and her co-authors -- Timnit Gebru, Emily M. Bender, and Angelina McMillan-Major -- subsequently published a response to the letter, accusing its authors of "fearmongering and AI hype".
"It is dangerous to distract ourselves with a fantasized AI-enabled utopia or apocalypse which promises either a 'flourishing' or 'potentially catastrophic' future," they wrote.
"Accountability properly lies not with the artefacts but with their builders."
FLI president Max Tegmark told Reuters the campaign was not an attempt to hinder OpenAI’s corporate advantage.
"It's quite 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 is not about one company."
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Shiri Dori-Hacohen, an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, told Reuters she agreed with some points in the letter, but took issue with the way in which her work was cited.
She last year co-authored a research paper arguing the widespread use of AI already posed serious risks.
Her research argued the present-day use of AI systems could influence decision-making in relation to climate change, nuclear war, and other existential threats.
She said: "AI does not need to reach human-level intelligence to exacerbate those risks.
"There are non-existential risks that are really, really important, but don't receive the same kind of Hollywood-level attention."
Asked to comment on the criticism, FLI's Tegmark said both short-term and long-term risks of AI should be taken seriously.
"If we cite someone, it just means we claim they're endorsing that sentence. It doesn't mean they're endorsing the letter, or we endorse everything they think," he told Reuters.
Dan Hendrycks, director of the California-based Center for AI Safety, who was also cited in the letter, stood by its contents, telling Reuters it was sensible to consider black swan events - those which appear unlikely, but would have devastating consequences.
The open letter also warned that generative AI tools could be used to flood the internet with "propaganda and untruth".
Dori-Hacohen said it was "pretty rich" for Musk to have signed it, citing a reported rise in misinformation on Twitter following his acquisition of the platform, documented by civil society group Common Cause and others.
Musk and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reporting by Martin Coulter; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Giles Elgood
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إخلاء المسؤولية: تتيح كيانات XM Group خدمة تنفيذية فقط والدخول إلى منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت، مما يسمح للشخص بمشاهدة و/أو استخدام المحتوى المتاح على موقع الويب أو عن طريقه، وهذا المحتوى لا يراد به التغيير أو التوسع عن ذلك. يخضع هذا الدخول والاستخدام دائماً لما يلي: (1) الشروط والأحكام؛ (2) تحذيرات المخاطر؛ (3) إخلاء المسؤولية الكامل. لذلك يُقدم هذا المحتوى على أنه ليس أكثر من معلومات عامة. تحديداً، يرجى الانتباه إلى أن المحتوى المتاح على منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت ليس طلباً أو عرضاً لدخول أي معاملات في الأسواق المالية. التداول في أي سوق مالي به مخاطرة عالية برأس مالك.
جميع المواد المنشورة على منصة تداولنا مخصصة للأغراض التعليمية/المعلوماتية فقط ولا تحتوي - ولا ينبغي اعتبار أنها تحتوي - على نصائح أو توصيات مالية أو ضريبية أو تجارية، أو سجلاً لأسعار تداولنا، أو عرضاً أو طلباً لأي معاملة في أي صكوك مالية أو عروض ترويجية مالية لا داعي لها.
أي محتوى تابع للغير بالإضافة إلى المحتوى الذي أعدته XM، مثل الآراء، والأخبار، والأبحاث، والتحليلات والأسعار وغيرها من المعلومات أو روابط مواقع تابعة للغير وواردة في هذا الموقع تُقدم لك "كما هي"، كتعليق عام على السوق ولا تعتبر نصيحة استثمارية. يجب ألا يُفسر أي محتوى على أنه بحث استثماري، وأن تلاحظ وتقبل أن المحتوى غير مُعدٍ وفقاً للمتطلبات القانونية المصممة لتعزيز استقلالية البحث الاستثماري، وبالتالي، فهو بمثابة تواصل تسويقي بموجب القوانين واللوائح ذات الصلة. فضلاً تأكد من أنك قد قرأت وفهمت الإخطار بالبحوث الاستثمارية غير المستقلة والتحذير من مخاطر المعلومات السابقة، والذي يمكنك الاطلاع عليه هنا.
