Since ChatGPT’s success, artificial intelligence (AI) has been the buzz of the industry. The AI chatbot has been in operation since November 2022 and has progressed significantly since then. It was first released as an experimental conversational chatbot that could be used for free. Along with the free version that remained accessible for usage, a commercial version of the chatbot was gradually put out. Following ChatGPT, several firms released their own AI solutions. Microsoft introduced Bing, whereas Google launched Bard. Recently, Meta jumped on the AI bandwagon and launched SAM, its own language model capable of identifying distinct things inside an image. While the world’s knowledge of AI is quickly improving, some IT executives are opposed and have asked for a 6-month stop in AI research.
However, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes that the AI research freeze would only help China.
Ex-Google CEO opposes pause on AI development
According to a Business Insider story based on an Australian Financial Review report, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that he is “not in favour of a six-month pause (on AI development), because it will simply benefit China.” He went on to say that AI’s fast progress has raised certain “concerns” that may have gone unnoticed until now.
“Things could be worse than people are saying,” he warned, adding that when massive language models grow in size, “emergent behaviour we don’t understand” emerges.
According to other news reports, the former Google CEO believes that all tech firms must work together to establish “guardrails” for their AI systems.
Elon Musk and other tech experts’ letter
Elon Musk recently made news for signing an open letter, along with many other industry professionals, asking for a six-month moratorium on AI research. The letter says that AI labs are currently in a “deadly race to beat each other in the AI race. “The letter goes on to say that no one, not even their developers, can understand, anticipate, or control these systems.
“As a result, we urge all AI labs to halt training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months.” This halt should be public and verifiable, and all essential parties should be included. If such a stop cannot be promptly implemented, governments should step in and impose a moratorium,” the letter said.
Along with AI’s growth in recent months, much has been said about its potential negative consequences. One of them is the capacity to disseminate disinformation. This prospect piqued people’s imagination, especially when the phoney photographs of former US President Donald Trump being jailed went viral.
