Convinced that chatbots like Chat GPT can pose “serious risks to society and humanity”, more than a thousand well-known personalities and artificial intelligence (AI) experts, including Yoshua Bengio and Elon Musk , ask for a six-month break in research.
In a petition initiated by the Future of Life Institute published this Wednesday and with 1,123 signatures at the time of writing these lines, it is denounced that AI laboratories have embarked in recent months on “an uncontrolled race to develop and deploying ever more powerful AI systems, which no one, not even their creators, can reliably understand, predict or control. »
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp are notably on the list.
Three of the signatories, including Yoshua Bengio, a Montreal authority considered one of the three godfathers of deep learning at the base of robots like Chat GPT, will hold a question and answer session this Wednesday at noon to present their arguments.
Supervise the development
In the letter accompanying the petition, it is recalled that a new, even more powerful version of the conversational robot which has been revolutionizing the world of AI since last November, Chat GPT, was launched this spring.
“Contemporary AI systems can now compete with humans for general purpose tasks. Powerful AI systems should only be developed when we are confident that their effects will be positive and the associated risks will be manageable. »
The six-month pause in research would, according to the signatories, ensure that the development of this technology is supervised and carried out for the good of society. Four key questions are posed that should guide the research:
- “Should we let the machines flood our channels with information, propaganda and lies? »
- “Should we automate all jobs, including rewarding ones? »
- “Should we develop non-human minds that might one day outnumber and outsmart us, obsolete and replace us? »
- “Should we risk losing control of our civilization? »
At the same time, there is a call for collaboration with policy makers to establish AI governance. In particular, we want to see the establishment of new regulatory authorities, the monitoring of high-performance AI systems, conventions to be able to distinguish “the real from the synthetic” and an audit and certification system.
“Humanity has the opportunity to enjoy a flourishing future thanks to AI. We can now enjoy an “AI summer” allowing us to reap the rewards of our efforts, to design these systems for the greater benefit of all. […]. The company has already paused other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects. »