Letter signed by Elon Musk & others demanding pause on AI research for 6 months sparks row

A letter that demands a halt on artificial intelligence (AI) research, co-signed by Elon Musk and other experts, has stirred a controversy as some of the signatories were found to be fake. Several others, meanwhile withdrew their support after it was discovered that the signs of the 'experts' on the document may not have been authentic. The letter warns AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity."

1,800 signatories on letter to stop AI research for 6 months

More than 1,800 people that included Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, put down their signatures in a letter on March 22 demanding that the AI research must be stopped as it could prove to be dangerous for humanity. Experts from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta, and Microsoft called for an estimated six-month pause on the development of systems “more powerful” than that of GPT-4, according to The Guardian newspaper. 

GPT-4, now backed by Microsoft, was developed by OpenAI—a firm that was co-founded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. AI chatbot has the ability to hold a human-like conversation and perform tasks that humans can such as writing songs, giving answers, and filing lengthy documents. In the letter, Musk and others warned that AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence” are a threat to humanity. Musk believes that artificial intelligence technology could outsmart humans. San Francisco startup OpenAI's release of GPT-4 has caused a stir as it is an advanced successor to the widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT. Since its release, there has been a race among the tech giants like Microsoft and Google to launch similar applications. 

Just last week, Italy banned ChatGPT after the National Data Protection Authority raised concerns over privacy violations. Until it is probed, the AI chatbot tool will be temporarily disabled throughout the country, the Italian government noted. The move came as the Italian authorities flagged concerns over ChatGPT's “mass data gathering” protocols. The AI chatbot lacks basic legal justifications for the collection and storage of personal data of the users, Italian authorities argued. ChatGPT is unavailable in several other countries such as North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, while its use is being controlled in the rest of the world.