Elon Musk and an array of public figures have signed their names to an open letter that went viral recently, calling for a six-month pause on training language models more powerful than GPT-4, the technology underpinning ChatGPT.
Some strange inconsistencies with the signatories aside, the letter is odd. It criticizes the deployment of powerful chatbot technology as rash, but also over-hypes their capabilities, drawing on the doom-mongering about AI and killer robots that have captivated the press and distracted from more nuanced, real-world risks.
"Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?” it asks dramatically (emphasis from the authors). "Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?”