That Musk-signed open letter calling for a pause on AI development is getting blasted by the very researchers it cites
Earlier this week, we reported on the open letter from the Future of Life Institute (FLI) calling for a six-month pause on training AI systems «more powerful» than the recently released Chat GPT-4. The letter was signed by the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque. The Guardian(opens in new tab) reports, however, that the letter is facing harsh criticism from the very sources it cites.
"On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots(opens in new tab)" is an influential paper criticizing the environmental costs and inherent biases of large language models like Chat GPT, and the paper is one of the primary sources cited by this past week's open letter. Co-author Margaret Mitchell, who previously headed up ethical AI research at Google, told Reuters that, «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.”
Mitchell continues, “Ignoring active harms right now is a privilege that some of us don’t have.»
University of Connecticut assistant professor Shiri Dori-Hacohen, whose work was also cited by the FLI letter, had similarly harsh words. «AI does not need to reach human-level intelligence to exacerbate those risks,» she said to Reuters, referring to existential challenges like climate change, further adding that, «There are non-existential risks that are really, really important, but don’t receive the same kind of Hollywood-level attention.»
The Future of Life Institute received €3,531,696 ($4,177,996 at the time) in funding from the Musk Foundation(opens in new tab) in 2021, its largest listed donor. Elon Musk himself, meanwhile, co-founded Chat GPT creator Open AI before leaving the company on poor
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