Calls for AI & GPT-4 “Pause” Are Unrealistic
By Betsy Burton
Calls for AI & GPT-4 “Pause” Are Unrealistic
Within the past few weeks there have been several within the technology industry who have called for a pause on the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, and specifically on the development of solutions using GPT-4, for at least six months so that organizations can catch up on training.
A letter calling for this pause was signed by over 1000 signatories, including the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Stability AI’s CEO Emad Mostaque, and AI-heavy weights Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell. Italy is making moves to ban ChatGPT related technologies.
There are clearly a number of intellectual property, economic, ethical and safety issues with unfettered artificial intelligence systems, that our legal and regulatory systems have not caught up with. In fact, there are reports of these systems being blamed for harming humans.
However, a pause on conversational AI systems is unrealistic.
Why a “Pause”?
We have been predicting the evolution of AI systems for years. In fact, I wrote my senior thesis on AI back in 1985.
Aragon Research has been writing about AI, generative AI, computer vision and knowledge-based systems for years; exploring both the strengths and challenges.
Despite knowing that these systems are evolving, our governments, legal systems and organizations have not prepared adequately in terms of training people, creating regulatory management or defining laws around artificial intelligence systems.
I understand and sympathize with the concept of a pause. But it’s completely unrealistic.
Why We Can’t Pause
The biggest reason that a pause is unrealistic is because there’s no way to manage or enforce a pause. Do we seriously believe that if the United States and Europe call for a pause, that China, Russia, North Korea or any other friendly or unfriendly country is going to just pause their research and deployments? Furthermore, our own defense and security agencies are not going to take a pause.
Further, what right does a democratic government have to tell independent private sector companies that they need to stifle innovation by pausing their research and development? There are clearly many potential benefits from AI-enabled technologies; greater use of agriculture, education and information to the masses, more accurate and less invasive medical systems and intelligent defense and security systems, to name a few.
Last, a six month or year “pause” is just kicking the can down the road. The issues and challenges with artificial intelligence are real. Rather than just pausing or delaying the need to do something, regulators, businesses, educators, economists and individuals must take action now…..not 6 months or longer down the road.
Need Realistic Solutions
Rather than focus on a pause, these business and technology luminaries should be spending their time working with governments to address the opportunities and challenges with AI-enabled technologies.
- How do we need to update intellectual property laws to account for the generation of content based on copyrighted materials?
- How do we put algorithms and AI models in place to manage the information feeding AI systems and the conversational output from AI systems?
- How do we protect these systems from nefarious parties that might subvert them for financial or political gain?
- How do we understand the economic, social, and cultural impact that AI-enabled systems will have on our workforce?
These are just a few of the questions, but these are the types of issues we should be addressing. Now, not 6 months or a year down the road.
Bottom Line
We’ve known AI-enabled systems have been evolving for years. There are scientific papers, prototypes, scenario studies and, even, fiction, that have been pointing to this evolution; we all remember Hal of 2001 Space Odyssey. We didn’t pay attention to these predictions for the past 35+ years, what would 6 months give us?
There are great opportunities and challenges with AI, as with any highly significant new technology. But like the industrial age, printing press, space race and age of automation, it is unrealistic to think a “pause” or a “ban” will stop this evolution.
Invest now in real management, regulatory, governance, policies and laws that can help promote the value of AI-enabled systems, like ChatGPT, and reduce the risks and vulnerabilities.
tPaaS- the market that can help drive your digital business transformation!
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tPaaS–The Market Required for Digital Business Transformation
Digital business transformation is critically needed by many organizations to effectively compete in this digital world. However, traditional iPaaS services lack the business strategy and architecture tools and advisory services required to transform their business models, and operations.
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This blog is part of the Business Transformation blog series by Aragon Research’s VP of Research, Betsy Burton.
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