Press pause to ensure AI benefits humanity

The open letter on the official website of the Future of Life Institute, co-signed by experts such as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and computer scientist Stuart Russell and calling for suspending training artificial intelligence systems more powerful than GPT4, is still sparking debate.

Besides calling for a suspension of six months, the open letter also stresses the importance of reaching a security agreement so as to ensure that the powerful AI systems are more accurate, secure and loyal to humankind.

Actually, as early as 2017, more than 2,000 professionals and scholars co-signed the Asilomar AI Principles, 23 guidelines for the research and development of artificial intelligence that aimed to establish a set of values for AI to be aligned with so that it would benefit humanity.

Since then, more than 100 AI principles and documents have been introduced.

Technology is becoming more deeply ingrained in people's lives, which means that human values and ethics must be considered inalienable parts of research and development to ensure that as technology progresses it is for the benefit of humankind.

With cutting-edge technology increasingly posing potential risks to human survival, while seeking to empower human society with science and technology, we should be alert to the irreversible risks that would result from excessive scientific and technological empowerment.

It is time that a suspension button is pressed for giant AI systems. That's the only way for humanity to prevent high-tech systems from becoming uncontrollable.

At the end of the open letter it reads: "Let's enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall." That poetic sentence not only applies to the very situation right now, but also to the coming future.