- Artificial intelligence is rapidly rising in popularity in the technology industry
- Several major tech companies are now warning against its potential dangers
- Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak are among the high-profile individuals who have called for a pause of AI development
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology and other related advancements, tech moguls are warning against widespread AI's potential dangers.
The warning comes after a wave of consumer enthusiasm prompted the development and launch of OpenAI's famous ChatGPT. Additionally, this trend has caused some major tech companies to pull resources to advance their AI technology and launch new AI-powered products.
Tech Moguls Warn of AI Threat
However, only some people are optimistic about artificial intelligence's potential impacts on society and the technology industry. Several high-profile tech figures have, last month, chipped in with an open letter that called for a pause on the development of advanced AI. These individuals include SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Steve Wozniak, as per Business Insider.
The letter noted various concerns among tech moguls regarding the potential consequences of further advancements in technology that are more powerful than OpenAI's GPT-4, including risks to democracy.
In some tech companies, including Google and OpenAI itself, senior figures have already started to push back against the aspects of the letter. They highlighted issues with some of its technical points and practicality.
For some time now, Tesla CEO Musk has been wary of artificial intelligence, saying in 2018 that AI is even more dangerous to the world than nuclear warheads. During a conference, he said it "scares the hell out of me."
OpenAI said that its latest GPT AI technology model is much more powerful than the version before that was used as a base for ChatGPT, which is a bot capable of generating walls of text from even the shortest of prompts, according to Science Alert.
Potential Consequences of Artificial Intelligence
The open letter of tech moguls noted that AI systems equipped with human-competitive intelligence are considered a threat to society and humanity. It added that these systems should only be developed after there is a confidence that their potential effects will be positive and that their risks are manageable.
Musk's warning comes despite being an initial investor in OpenAI and spending several years on its board. Furthermore, his electric vehicle manufacturing company, Tesla, develops AI systems that drive its cars, among other applications.
Another signatory of the open letter is Canadian AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio who warned that "society is not ready" for such a powerful tool and its potential misuse. His remarks came during a virtual conference in Montreal.
In a recent interview, Kevin Baragona, a co-founder of DeepAI, said that artificial intelligence is similar to nuclear weapons software. His remarks referenced the 1940s when the atomic bomb was created. The tech mogul added that many people have debated whether or not they should continue with such developments, said Firstpost.
Related Article: Insider Lays Off 10% of Staff: Is ChatGPT Experiment to Blame?
