Experts disown Musk-backed campaign to pause AI research, citing their work

LONDON – Four artificial intelligence experts have expressed concern after their work was cited in an open letter – co-signed by billionaire Elon Musk – demanding an urgent pause in research.

The letter, dated March 22 and with more than 1,800 signatures by Friday, called for a six-month circuit breaker in the development of systems “more powerful” than Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s new GPT-4, which can hold human-like conversation, compose songs and summarise lengthy documents.

Since GPT-4‘s predecessor ChatGPT was released in 2022, rival companies have rushed to launch similar products.

The open letter says AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence” pose profound risks to humanity, citing 12 pieces of research from experts, including university academics, as well as current and former employees of OpenAI, Google and its subsidiary DeepMind.

Civil society groups in the United States and European Union have since pressed lawmakers to rein in OpenAI’s research. OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Critics have accused the Future of Life Institute (FLI), the organisation behind the letter that is primarily funded by the Musk Foundation, of prioritising imagined apocalyptic scenarios over more immediate concerns about AI, such as racist or sexist biases.

Among the research cited was On The Dangers Of Stochastic Parrots, a paper co-authored by Dr Margaret Mitchell, who previously oversaw ethical AI research at Google.

Dr Mitchell, now chief ethical scientist at AI firm Hugging Face, criticised the letter, telling Reuters it was unclear what counted as “more powerful than GPT4”.

“By treating a lot of questionable ideas as a given, the letter asserts a set of priorities and a narrative on AI that benefits the supporters of FLI,” she said. “Ignoring active harms right now is a privilege that some of us don’t have.”

Dr Mitchell and her co-authors – Dr Timnit Gebru, Professor Emily M. Bender and Ms Angelina McMillan-Major – subsequently published a response to the letter, accusing its authors of “fearmongering and AI hype”.

“It is dangerous to distract ourselves with a fantasised AI-enabled utopia or apocalypse which promises either a ‘flourishing’ or ‘potentially catastrophic’ future,” they wrote. “Accountability properly lies not with the artefacts but with their builders.”

FLI president Max Tegmark told Reuters the campaign was not an attempt to hinder OpenAI’s corporate advantage.

“It’s quite hilarious. I’ve seen people say, ‘Elon Musk is trying to slow down the competition’,” he said, adding that Mr Musk had no role in drafting the letter. “This is not about one company.”