Sam Altman and 350 Experts Warn of AI Extinction Threat

Today (31st) Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, and 350 authorities in the AI field jointly signed an open letter with only one sentence, saying that the AI technology developed now may pose a threat to the future survival of mankind. “Father of ChatGPT” Sam Altman and industry authorities publicly stated: “The risk of AI extinction is similar to epidemics and nuclear bombs, and should be a global priority.”

▲Image source:Center for AI Safety

Including Sam Altman, more than 350 managers, researchers and engineers working in the AI industry have signed the open letter published by the Center for AI Safety. Center for AI Safety is a non-profit organization whose goal is to reduce the risks of AI to human society through research. People in the industry who signed the open letter stated that AI has the ability to exterminate human beings, and this social risk should be handled with the same principles as dealing with pandemics and nuclear bombs.

Since OpenAI released ChatGPT at the end of last year, the AI industry has continued to develop AI in an “arms race”. There are voices in the industry reflecting that GPT-4 is already comparable to humans in general tasks, and even competitive with humans. Therefore, it is opposed to continuing to develop AI in an uncontrolled state, lest AI become the leader without being elected in the future, and human beings will lose control of civilization at that time, which will cause irreversible damage to society.

AI is developing rapidly, but there are no specific laws and regulatory agencies for AI. This means that there are currently no effective measures to ensure that AI tools will not pose a threat to humans, and at the same time, the safety of using AI cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, last week, AI industry giants such as Sam Altman and OpenAI 2 senior executives proposed that similar regulatory nuclear power should be established. The IAEA-like international organization to oversee the development and use of AI. Sam Altman also called on all parties in the AI industry to cooperate and suggested that the government strengthen supervision of AI developers.

As early as March this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Stephen Gary Wozniak and other technology industry leaders signed an open letter calling on all AI laboratories to suspend training AI systems that are more powerful than GPT-4 for at least 6 months .

source:Center for AI Safety