The Open Letter That Could Define the Future of AI

Why Tech Pioneers Are Urging a Global Pause

Tan Han Wei
3 min readMar 31, 2023
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Introduction

A remarkable occurrence has unfolded as over 1,400 professionals and tech industry leaders, such as Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and other notable personalities, have endorsed an open letter urging a worldwide, voluntary half-year suspension of the advancement of artificial intelligence systems that possess the capability to surpass GPT-4. This open letter, spearheaded by the Future of Life Institute, has incited a far-reaching discussion concerning the inherent risks related to the swift progress of AI technologies. This piece of writing examines the reasoning behind advocating for a temporary cessation and the ramifications of this action for the AI community.

The Public Communication

The public correspondence, accessible on the Future of Life Institute’s online platform, expounds on the potential hazards of AI systems exceeding human-level performance in the majority of economically valuable tasks. The letter accentuates the necessity for an interim halt on AI exploration and advancement to provide an opportunity for the development of suitable safety precautions, policies, and global agreements. The endorsers assert that inaction might culminate in an AI…

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Tan Han Wei
Tan Han Wei

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