Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence
In plain wordsA 2015 open letter, signed by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and many leading AI researchers, urging that AI research aim not only at making systems more capable but also at making them safe and beneficial.
An open letter published by the Future of Life InstituteFuture of Life Institute, prop. n.: An advocacy group that warns about the dangers of advanced AI and other powerful technologies, funds research and lobbies governments. It organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause on giant AI experiments. in January 2015 under the title 'Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence', arguing that work on making AI more capable should be matched by research into keeping ever more capable systems reliable and beneficial, systems that 'do what we want them to do'. An accompanying agenda by Stuart RussellStuart Russell, prop. n.: A British computer scientist who co-wrote the standard AI textbook and argues that AI must be redesigned to stay uncertain about what humans want, so that it remains under human control., Daniel Dewey and Max TegmarkMax Tegmark, prop. n.: A Swedish-American physicist at MIT who co-founded the Future of Life Institute, which organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause in training the most powerful AI systems. covered near-term topics (law and ethics, economic effects, verification, validity, security and control) and long-term questions about controlling highly capable systems. Signed by thousands, including Stephen Hawking, Elon MuskElon Musk, prop. n.: A South African-born American entrepreneur who runs Tesla and SpaceX, co-founded OpenAI, founded the AI company xAI, and has long warned that AI could endanger humanity. and many prominent researchers in academia and industry, it was among the first mainstream statements placing AI safetyAI safety, n.: The effort to keep AI from doing serious harm, whether because it pursues aims its makers never intended, is turned to bad uses or simply malfunctions — a concern that grows as systems become more capable. on the research agenda. Days later Musk pledged US$10 million to the institute for research grants.
The 2015 Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence now reads like a founding charter of AI safety research.
Origin
Released shortly after the Future of Life Institute's conference 'The Future of AI: Opportunities and Challenges', held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in early January 2015. It was followed by the Asilomar AI PrinciplesAsilomar AI Principles, prop. n.: A list of 23 guidelines for safe and beneficial AI drawn up at a 2017 conference in California and signed by thousands of researchers and public figures. (2017) and, with a sharper demand, by Pause Giant AI ExperimentsPause Giant AI Experiments, prop. n.: A 2023 open letter, signed by tens of thousands of people including prominent technologists, that asked AI labs to halt the training of any AI more capable than GPT-4 for at least half a year. (2023).
Related
- Future of Life InstituteFuture of Life Institute, prop. n.: An advocacy group that warns about the dangers of advanced AI and other powerful technologies, funds research and lobbies governments. It organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause on giant AI experiments.
- AI safetyAI safety, n.: The effort to keep AI from doing serious harm, whether because it pursues aims its makers never intended, is turned to bad uses or simply malfunctions — a concern that grows as systems become more capable.
- Asilomar AI PrinciplesAsilomar AI Principles, prop. n.: A list of 23 guidelines for safe and beneficial AI drawn up at a 2017 conference in California and signed by thousands of researchers and public figures.
- Pause Giant AI ExperimentsPause Giant AI Experiments, prop. n.: A 2023 open letter, signed by tens of thousands of people including prominent technologists, that asked AI labs to halt the training of any AI more capable than GPT-4 for at least half a year.
- Statement on AI RiskStatement on AI Risk, prop. n.: A one-sentence public statement from May 2023, signed by hundreds of leading AI scientists and company heads, declaring that guarding against the chance of AI wiping out humanity should rank as a priority for the whole world.
- AI alignmentAI alignment, n.: Making an AI system genuinely try to do what the people it serves want — not a literal-minded, distorted or self-serving version of it. Also the research field working on this.
Sources
- Russell, S., Dewey, D. & Tegmark, M. (2015). Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence. AI Magazine 36(4), 105–114.