Leading figures in science and technology, including the CEO of OpenAI, which created the artificial intelligence (AI) system ChatGPT, have signed a statement warning that the technology threatens human extinction. The statement, published on the Center for AI Safety website, calls for mitigating the risks of AI to become a global priority alongside other large-scale risks to society, including pandemics and nuclear war. Among the hundreds of signatories were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton. The concerns reflect fears that the new generation of highly-capable AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, could surpass human capabilities and even potentially outsmart humans. This follows a separate letter signed by over 1,000 technologists and researchers earlier in the year, which called for a six-month pause on AI development, citing significant risks to humanity.
OpenAI is a research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent firm, OpenAI Inc. The San Francisco-based organisation was founded in 2015 and aims to develop and promote friendly AI for the benefit of humanity as a whole. It is backed by entrepreneurial figures, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the godfather of AI, is a British-born computer scientist and cognitive psychologist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Professor at the University of Toronto, as well as an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh and an Emeritus Fellow at the University of Sussex. His research has helped to form the basis of numerous technologies that rely on machine learning, including online visual search engines and voice recognition software.
