Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has issued his first public remarks in response to a proposal endorsed by Elon Musk and scores of artificial intelligence experts who demanded an urgent pause to the development of advanced forms of AI due to \u201cprofound risks to society and humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gates told Reuters in an interview that calls to pause the development of AI won\u2019t \u201csolve the challenges\u201d ahead, that a stoppage would be hard to implement globally, and that the rationale for doing so isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, Musk added his signature to a letter issued<\/a> by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute that warned that AI labs are currently locked in an \u201cout-of-control race\u201d to develop and put to use \u201cever more powerful digital minds\u201d that cannot be fully understood, much less reliably controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk and what is, at last count, over 10,000 signatories\u2014including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and engineers from Meta and Google\u2014called on all AI labs to \u201cimmediately pause\u201d training of systems more powerful than Chat GPT-4 for at least six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter doesn\u2019t call for a halt to AI development in general, just the most advanced systems in what the experts described as an act of \u201cmerely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experts warned that AI systems with human-competitive intelligence could pose \u201cprofound risks to society and humanity\u201d and should be planned for and managed carefully to avoid potentially \u201ccatastrophic\u201d impacts on the world and its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHaving succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy an \u2018AI summer\u2019 in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSociety has hit pause on other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects on society. We can do so here. Let\u2019s enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall,\u201d they argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They called for AI labs and independent experts to use the six-month moratorium to develop and implement a set of safety protocols for advanced AI design that would ensure that these systems are \u201csafe beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gates, in his interview with Reuters, threw cold water on the idea of a development pause and suggested a different course of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges,\u201d Gates said. \u201cClearly, there [are] huge benefits to these things \u2026 what we need to do is identify the tricky areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides recommending a more surgical approach to addressing the risks of AI by presumably identifying the biggest risks and working on ways to mitigate them, Gates criticized the letter\u2019s vague criteria for enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t really understand who they\u2019re saying could stop, and would every country in the world agree to stop, and why to stop,\u201d Gates told Reuters. \u201cBut there are a lot of different opinions in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the full story\u00a0here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n