Ethereum's Buterin, Echoing OpenAI Sensibility, Warns of 'Superintelligent' AI Risks
Summary:
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has expressed concerns about "superintelligent" artificial intelligence (AI) in relation to recent changes at OpenAI. His views coincide with those of Jan Leike, former head of alignment at OpenAI, who criticized the company's lack of focus on safety protocols. Buterin emphasized the use of open models on consumer hardware as a way to prevent control by a small group of companies. His statements come as the UK government scrutinizes Big Tech's increasing involvement in the AI sector.
Ethereum Co-founder, Vitalik Butertin, recently expressed his concern over the potential peril of "superintelligent" artificial intelligence (AI), coinciding with recent leadership shake-ups at OpenAI. As indicated in a report by Cointelegraph on May 19, the transition followed the resignation of Jan Leike, previous head of alignment at OpenAI who voiced his dissent over the firm's primary focus. Leike suggested that safety protocols fell secondary to competitive innovations within OpenAI, a claim that many suspect to relate to advancements in artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI, a form of AI that is expected to match or surpass human cognitive capabilities, raises alarm bells among industrial experts who argue society is unprepared to handle such evolved AI systems. This view aligns with Buterin's own stance. In a recent X post, Buterin emphasized a cautionary approach towards this emerging subject. Buterin promotes open models operating on consumer technology, seen as protection against potential monopolisation by a small group of companies who could potentially control and filter the majority of human cognition. “Models such as these pose significantly less apocalyptic risk than either corporate giants or militaries,” Buterin added. Buterin shared his views for the second time in the past week about AI, and its rapidly evolving capabilities. On May 16, he suggested that OpenAI's GPT-4 model has surpassed the Turing test, a measure of an AI model's likeness to human behavior. He quoted recent studies stating that most people cannot distinguish between interacting with a machine and a human. However, Buterin isn’t pioneering in his skepticism. The UK government has also closely examined Big Tech's growing influence in the AI landscape, flagging issues concerning competition and market domination. Activist groups like 6079 AI are also sprouting across the internet, lobbying for decentralized AI to prevent domination by tech giants. Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and head scientist of OpenAI, announced his resignation on May 14. Unlike his counterpart, Sutskever did not raise any concerns about AGI in his X post, instead expressing his faith in OpenAI's ability to create a “safe and beneficial” AGI.
Published At
5/21/2024 5:01:33 PM
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