Why are there calls for a halt to AI research?

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**Bababam** (1:04)
Why are there calls for a haunt to AI research?
Thanks for asking.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in November last year, there's been a wave of popular demand for AI technology. The Chatbot reached 100 million users in record time, with its appeal stretching far beyond the tech savvy.
After all, it can write essays and songs, summarize documents, and hold human-like conversations. But the rapid advances are causing concern in some quarters. In late March, the Future of Life Institute published a pretty direct open letter calling for a six-month pause in the training of AI systems, saying that they shouldn't be able to go any further than Open AI's GPT-4 model. A number of tech leaders and researchers signed the letter, including the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. At the time of recording, the letter had reached over 14,000 signatures. But isn't AI going to make all of our lives easier? Well, that may be true to some extent, but there's a hell of a lot of unknowns to factor in too. Citing 12 pieces of research, the open letter acknowledges that AI systems have reached human competitive intelligence, but says that this could pose profound risks to society and humanity. It argues that the recent hype has led to an out of control race between AI labs and that even those creating AI models can't reliably predict what the consequences will be. The profit motive is of course pushing companies to make hasty decisions and rush their product launches. It's hardly outlandish to suggest that means there's a risk of insufficient planning. The open letter speculates that negative consequences could include propaganda and fake news and the automation of many jobs and that in the long term it could even cause us to lose control of our civilization if non-human minds are one day able to outnumber and outsmart us. Of course that's somewhat of an apocalyptic scenario, but it's fair to say that AI is worrying a lot of people. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan said that we are playing with the hottest thing since the discovery of fire. Even Open AI CEO Sam Altman himself recently told Fox News he was a little bit scared of his creation, although he didn't go as far as backing the proposed AI pause.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:29)
People should be happy that we're a little bit scared of this.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:31)
I think people should be happy. You're a little bit scared.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:33)
A little bit, yeah, of course. You personally.

**Bababam** (3:36)
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What are the counterarguments in favour of further developing AI? Well, to start with, there are a lot of practical questions over how an AI pause would actually work. Would all AI companies agree to it all over the world? Of course, that's highly unlikely. And a lot of people think the benefits of AI outweigh its risks. In the week following the Future of Life open letter, Bill Gates told Reuters it would be better if we worked out how to use AI developments for good rather than putting a halt to research efforts. Some people have pointed fingers at those behind the original open letter, saying it focused on hypothetical future risks rather than fixing the current ways in which AI is causing harm, like learning and then exhibiting racist or sexist biases, for example. Debate on the issue is unlikely to go away anytime soon, but it seems that most people agree on one thing at least, AI needs to be better regulated and quickly. There you have it.