- Bill Gates believes that AI falling into the wrong hands is not a major concern and opposes pausing AI development out of fear.
- Gates emphasizes the importance of empowering ‘good actors’ with robust AI capabilities
- He said the responsibility lies with consumers themselves, who need to learn to identify reliable sources and distinguish between authentic and non-authentic sources.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has expressed concern about the speed of artificial intelligence (AI) development, but he believes the development of new technologies should not be put on hold.
Gates believes AI is a game-changing technology, pointing out how big the implications are for the future, calling it “pretty basic.”
Microsoft-backed OpenAI fired its first pistols in the technological arms race when it released its AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT to the public in November.
It quickly became the fastest growing app in history, reaching 100 million monthly users in two months.
In an interview with ABC News, Gates said, “We’re all afraid the bad guys will grab it,” but said that such technology should continue to be developed.
Last month, Twitter CEO Elon Musk joined thousands of people signing an open letter calling for the recently launched OpenAI to halt development of a system more powerful than GPT-4 for six months.
Signatories include Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and fellow AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell.
Gates disagrees with the idea of pausing development. “If you only suspend good people and don’t suspend others, you’re probably hurting yourself.
Gates decided to voice his concerns about the rapid advancement of technology and the ramifications of it being used by bad actors.
Perhaps worryingly, the billionaire noted that the government is lagging behind when it comes to understanding technology.
Gates said regulators aren’t keeping up with the rapidly evolving technology, nor are they ready to make big decisions about its future.
He acknowledged that while AI continues to amaze with its capabilities, it also highlights its limitations. He believes AI has the potential to bring about big changes in various industries.
“We are often amazed at how good it is.
Ultimately, he believes the positives of AI will outweigh the negatives.
“This field has actually put more smart people into it than any field I know of, and it’s about what comes next and how to make sure it’s beneficial.” said Gates.
“We have found that the right use of AI can give us many benefits that we do not want to throw away.
“It could be great in health and education if used properly,” Gates said. ‘That’s a big deal. It will improve education and ensure that students attending private and suburban schools have a way to get excellent feedback this way. That’s exciting”
Gates praises OpenAI’s ChatGPT software and believes the latest update from GPT-3 to GPT-4 has made significant improvements.
Despite the risks, Gates noted that the AI field is attracting bright minds focused on making sure it’s put to good use.
Last week, Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as one of the “Godfathers of AI,” recently announced he was leaving Alphabet after ten years, wanting to speak out about the risks of the technology without affecting his previous job. said. Employer.
Hinton’s work is considered essential to the development of modern AI systems.
In 1986, he co-authored the influential paper Learning Representations by Backpropagation, a milestone in the development of neural networks that underlie AI technology. In 2018, he received a Turing Award in recognition of his research breakthroughs.
However, he is now one of a growing number of technology leaders who publicly endorse concerns about the potential threat posed by AI if machines achieve greater intelligence than humans and take over the planet. It is
Hinton suggested that artificial intelligence could pose a “more urgent” threat to humanity than climate change.
“I don’t want to devalue climate change. I don’t want to say, ‘Don’t worry about climate change.’ That’s also a big risk,” Hinton said. “But I think this could be more urgent.”
He added: “When it comes to climate change, it’s very easy to recommend what to do. Just stop burning carbon. It’s not at all clear what to do.
Chatbots can already hold more general knowledge than the human brain, Hinton said.
He added that it’s only a matter of time before AI surpasses us when it comes to reasoning as well.
At this point, “bad guys” like Russian President Vladimir Putin can use AI for “bad things” by programming robots to “gain more power.” he said.
ChatGPT is proof of how fast technology is growing.
In just a few months, he passed the bar exam with a score higher than 90% of those who took it, and achieved 60% accuracy on the US medical licensing exam.
