On Sunday, Twitter and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk again spoke out about the danger of emerging AI technology, noting that he warned then-President Obama about the potential risks unregulated artificial technology development can have on society.
Software developer Mckay Wrigley recently tweeted that AI would continue to see “exponential growth” in the coming years.
Wrigley asserted that AI technology is progressing very rapidly and that just one year ago, those who predicted the development and mass marketing of an AI-processed system, now known as ChatGPT, were “considered lunatics.”
Wrigley added that coming changes in AI technology in the next decade would hit skeptics “like an asteroid.”
“I saw it happening from well before GPT-1,” Wrigley said, which is why I tried to warn the public for years.
“Musk responded to Wrigley: “The only one on one meeting I ever had with Obama as President I used not to promote Tesla or SpaceX, but to encourage AI regulation.”
Obama attended a cybersecurity summit at Stanford University in 2015. After the summit, then-President Obama dined with Musk at the Spruce restaurant and toured the SpaceX center in Cape Canaveral.
Notably, Musk co-founded OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company that developed ChatGPT. Concerned with runaway, unregulated AI tech, Musk recently signed an open letter with hundreds of other technology leaders calling for a six-month moratorium on developing AI solutions stronger than GPT-4.
An excerpt of the letter read:
“Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable. This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system’s potential effects.”
The Daily Wire reported that Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius and other senior analysts warned that generative AI systems could have “potentially large macroeconomic effects” and produce “significant disruption” in labor markets.
The Information reported that Musk warned that ChatGPT “is an example of training AI to be woke” and believes it could be used to propagate liberal viewpoints. Reportedly, Musk has approached senior researchers urging the creation of alternatives.
The open letter Musk signed was partly in response to Microsoft’s announcement that in the near future, Microsoft would integrate ChatGPT into the Bing search engine and internet browser Edge. Reportedly, the change will allow users to “locate information or understand websites with more ease.”
Google announced that Bard, an experimental conversational AI service, would soon be integrated into the platform’s search engine.
Similarly, Amazon and Meta have announced the availability of multiple AI products soon.
Though some doubt countries such as China will curb AI development, several U.S. leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are considering regulation options.
In response, Musk tweeted: “Good news! AI regulation will be far more important than it may seem today.”
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.