Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, WEF’s Yuval Noah Harari, and Apple’s Steve Wozniak are among the over 1100 signatories of a letter to pause AI “more powerful than GPT-4” for a period of 6 months. It should be noted that the signatories, in many cases, are the ones behind the development of the very transformative AI technologies they now fear. Musk told an audience at his Tesla Investor Day 2023 the industry may need regulation. He added he “fear[s] he may have done some things to accelerate it.”
The letter advances the notion of an “‘AI summer’ in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt.” It also proposes a wish to avoid unintended, “potentially catastrophic effects on society.” However, the letter also suggests a not-so-comforting solution, that the government intervene if “such a pause is not enacted quickly.” So now governmental intervention becomes the only way those involved can stop themselves? It seems very odd unless they know they are too far gone to control their own impulses or, even more terrifyingly, the technology itself.