By OAN - Roy Francis - March 29, 2023

A number of tech leaders and well-known Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers, along with Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, have signed a letter calling on AI labs around the world to pause the development of large AI systems.

The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people including Musk, called for AI developers to “immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”

The letter, published by the Future of Life Institute, cited fears over the “profound risks to society and humanity.” It also warned that at the current stage, no one can “understand, predict, or reliably control” the new tools being developed in the AI labs.

The Future of Life Institute also notes that AI labs are locked in an “out-of-control race” to develop new systems “that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control.”

“Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4,” the letter said. “This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”

Tech experts who had signed the letter said that safety protocols need to be developed by independent parties to guide the future of the systems that are being developed.

“AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts,” the letter states. “In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems.”

The letter also noted that OpenAI, the company that had developed ChatGPT, has also expressed the need for an “independent review” of future systems to ensure that the safety standards are being met.

Signatories of the letter include Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, author Yuval Noah Harari, politician Andrew Yang, as well as researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind and a host of other tech leaders.