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“Is a Pause on AI Research Necessary?”
Presented by Victor Zurkowski
The recent advent of large language-models (i.e.: chatGPT and the like) has given rise to a paradigm shift. Much like the change from a geocentric model of the Universe to a heliocentric model, today much in our world is as it was not long ago, but our understanding of intelligence, complexity, the state of being sentient or emotional, and the place of humans in the world are going through a paradigm shift. On March 22, 2023, a group of concerned people signed a letter asking to pause giant AI experiments. See https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/ . Since then, over thirty thousand people have added their signatures.
On a first reading, the letter comes across as a well-meaning call to moderation in the pursue of AI developments. On a second reading, a few points become more noticeable:
1. The list of signatories starts with some impressive names: Yoshua Bengio, Stuart Russell, Bart Selman, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Yuval Noah Harari, … The first woman in the list is Valerie Pisano in 10th place. Whereas the men that precede Valerie Pisano have made contributions to academia or industry, Pisano’s has worked in business administration.
2. The letter was posted by the Future of Life Institute. Elon Musk and Stuart Russell are external advisors to the Institute.
3. The letter asks for “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4”, this is unenforceable, and unmeasurable (“more powerful than GPT-4”?). They continue “If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”; this is censorship, and at odds with the position Musk has adopted as “a bastion of free speech in his plans to take over Twitter, […] expressing a civil libertarianism philosophy in that a person's individual freedom should outweigh corporate or state rules.” (https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-political-views-gop-democrat-libertarian-1751181)
4. “Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with AI. […] we can now enjoy an "AI summer" in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt.” Who are the “we” that will reap the rewards?
5. As of May 22, Canadian-British cognitive and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, often called “The Godfather of A.I.”, has not signed the letter. In interviews I heard him saying he is not opposed to continuing A.I. research.
Questions for discussion:
a. Is the letter an expression of genuine concern, or of high-status people vying for relevance as advisors and experts on a.i.?
b. Will the wealth to be created from these new technologies end up in the hands of a small group? Will the control of a.i. applications be open and democratic? Is it already too late to make ChatGPT open?
c. Any concern or ideas regarding ownership and control of language models?
Video Resources:
Yuval Noah Harari: AI and The Future of Humanity
Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin The A.I. Dilemma