A group of leading artificial intelligence and technology experts has urged an immediate halt to the development of “superintelligence”—AI systems that would exceed human performance across virtually all cognitive tasks.
More than 850 individuals, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, have signed a Statement on Superintelligence this month demanding a pause in superintelligence research.
The list of signatories was notably topped by prominent AI pioneers, including the computer scientists Yoshua Bengio and Geoff Hinton, who are widely considered “godfathers” of modern AI. Leading AI researchers like UC Berkeley’s Stuart Russell also signed on.
Superintelligence has become a buzzword in the AI world, as companies from Elon Musk’s xAI to Sam Altman’s OpenAI compete to release more advanced large language models. Meta
notably has gone so far as to name its LLM division the ‘Meta Superintelligence Labs.’But signatories of the recent statement warn that the prospect of superintelligence has “raised concerns, ranging from human economic obsolescence and disempowerment, losses of freedom, civil liberties, dignity, and control, to national security risks and even potential human extinction.”
In addition to AI and tech figures, the names behind the statement came from a broad coalition ranging from academics, media personalities, religious leaders and a bipartisan group of former U.S. politicians and officials… Other high-profile signatories included the British royal family members Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex…
MacDailyNews Take: 🤣
[A]s noted by the ‘Statement on Superintelligence’ signatory website, even the leaders of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies, such as Musk and Altman, have, in the past, warned about the dangers of superintelligence.
Before becoming CEO of OpenAI, Altman wrote in a 2015 blog post that “development of superhuman machine intelligence (SMI) is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk said on a podcast earlier this year that there was “only a 20% chance of annihilation” when discussing the risks of advanced AI surpassing human intelligence.
MacDailyNews Take: Alarmists create and inflate existential threats — from impending climate doom to AI overlords — in order to gin up billions for their “solutions.”
As for The Singularity: Some things that seem inevitable never come to fruition and are often looked upon by successive generations with a 20/20 hindsight chuckle. — MacDailyNews, March 23, 2015
Besides, there is no way to prohibit or even police the development of superintelligence, no matter how many signatures you collect.
And, by the way, here’s Woz just a couple of years ago:
I was convinced that by a certain date ww were going to have computers that had emotions and feelings… and they were going to be like humans… And, then, I decided to change my mind. All of this artificial intelligence type stuff – computers being kind of smart; doing the smartest jobs; doing thing you used to do with a brain – all of those were really only going to be doing things that helped humans and we would still be in control of that. It wouldn’t be a machine thinking, “What should I do today?” they aren’t going to have that kind of intuition. We’re going to program them specifically to solve individual problems, but not the whole life. – Steve Wozniak, February 9, 2023
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
With “anthropogenic climate change” finally dying after being buried under a mountain of proven lies, manipulated data, and laughably overblown hysterics — even bullshit artist Bill Gates, a thief who famously missed a little thing called The Internet, can now see the writing on the wall for that con* — a new boogeyman is required.
More info: Peer Reviewed Study: CO2 has Zero Impact on Climate Change
*The infamously myopic Tim Cook may never figure it out.
This is brilliant… Because then only China, Russia, Iraq, insert any dictatorship with money here, would have it!
Idealistic morons. Have any of you thought about this go longer than 5 seconds?!
If you ban superintelligences only the criminals will have superintelligences.
Yea because China will totally not do it. 🙄
I only care what James Cameron has to say about it.