Why the FLI Open Letter Won’t Work
History sure does rhyme and AI is no exception
On March 22, the Future of Life Institute published an open letter where they “call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” I agree with the letter’s intention but not completely with the premises (or the reasons that motivated it). In case you haven’t read it yet, I recommend you do it and then come back.
Before I continue, I want to share some contrarian takes (that I consider reasonable) with you: Emily M. Bender, Matthew Barnett, Arvind Narayanan, and Timnit Gebru. Here’s another — yet opposite from the above — by Scott Aaronson. And here’s Eliezer Yudkowsky’s more extreme take (“We need to shut it all down”). I also thoroughly recommend reading the level-headed response to criticisms (including those above) by Gary Marcus (who signed but isn’t in complete agreement). The debate is clearly more nuanced than it seems at first sight.
This article isn’t a defense of my stance. It is neither a review of the arguments in favor (e.g., the letter is great, it’s necessary, it has flaws but it’s important to sign it) nor against (e.g., the letter is plain stupid, it’s useless, or it’s completely mistaken in its motivation and proposal). It is, instead, a lateral view: my reasoning for why I…
