Musk, experts named in letter urging pause on training of AI systems that can outperform GPT-4

Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts and industry executives were named in an open letter calling for a six-month pause in the training of systems more powerful than GPT-4, citing potential risks to society and humanity.

The letter, issued by the non-profit Future of Life Institute and signed by more than 1,000 people, called for a pause on advanced AI development until shared safety protocols for such designs were developed, implemented and audited by independent experts. The list of names in the open letter included Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque.

"Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," the letter said.

The letter also detailed potential risks to society and civilization by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions, and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance and regulatory authorities.

The letter comes as EU police force Europol on Monday joined a chorus of ethical and legal concerns over advanced AI like ChatGPT, warning about the potential misuse of the system in phishing attempts, disinformation and cybercrime.

Since its release last year, Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted rivals to launch similar products, and companies to integrate it or similar technologies into their apps and products.