Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and more than a thousand other industry leaders are asking for a six-month pause in the rapid, uncontrolled and runaway development of Artificial Intelligence. While I like the idea of not losing control to this new technology, the problem is it simply will not work. However, there is another solution, but it would require a worldwide buy-in.
First, this delay creates new questions and issues. Like, is a six-month delay long enough? What about the rest of the world? Other countries won’t slow down their mad dash to the AI future and won’t that leave the USA behind in the proverbial dust?
Plus, AI is being developed by a large group of large and small companies and loads of scientists and business leaders. So, controlling the development in the United States and globally is virtually impossible.
Is 6-month Musk, Wozniak AI delay long enough?
Bottom line, while I understand the desire to slow down the mad rush to AI along with Musk and Wozniak, attempting to do so will not work.
We must be very careful about each step we take moving forward into this new world. However, stopping the rapid and runaway development of AI won’t really work because other countries and countless individuals will continue to move ahead at lightning speed.
Yes, this risk for potential problems is real. So, we must come up with another solution to address the potential problems that AI will create.
Alternative to AI pause so USA does not fall behind worldwide growth
First, we must realize AI is a two-sided coin. And we must pay as much attention to both sides. One side can help mankind, while the other side can be very dangerous to mankind.
Another way to consider this issue is to look how the nuclear bomb threat unfolded decades ago. After seeing the devastation it unleashed, only a few countries were allowed to have this technology. This has worked. Perhaps this can also work with AI.
AI is defining moment in the history or America and the world
We need to think in these terms since AI has the potential to cause great benefit and great harm and disruption to our civilization if left unchecked.
It won’t start that way. It will start innocently like a new technology game. We will all play with it and be delighted like children with a new toy.
Next, it will work its way into our society. It will take the low-level jobs like taking orders at McDonalds, then eventually cook the burgers in business after business, industry after industry.
This may be more efficient but will also eliminate many entry-level and low-level jobs impacting countless workers, our economy and society in general.
Going forward, AI it will increasingly impact the workforce in a variety of ways. Then, down the road, as the technology gets better, smarter and more invasive it will move faster and further into our society.
AI will both help and hurt mankind. It will be very disruptive to our economy.
Even the technology leaders in our society and the people developing AI do not know the extent of the damage which could unfold. Damage that cannot be controlled or reversed.
AI is both helpful and dangerous, so we need to stay alert
You see, AI is a technology that has both good and bad. On one hand AI is great. I don’t want AI to disappear. It can scan a medical patient’s back to see countless moles looking for cancer and saving lives. It can replace damaged organs. It can fix problems that were unfixable in the past, and so much more.
However, there are parts of AI which Musk and Wozniak warn could go further and deeper and not have good results for individuals and our society.
We need balance. We need to let the good parts of AI that are beneficial, continue. At the same time, we need to be careful about the parts that could cause disruption and damage.
Elon Musk is AI supporter, investor and critic
Over the past decade, Artificial Intelligence has been on a rapid growth track. Now that growth track has accelerated to such a pace it is raising red-flags of fear among those who understand the potential problems it can cause.
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Elon Musk has been a supporter of this new AI technology, an investor and now a critic saying we need to step carefully into this new garden of the unknown.
Now, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple joined Musk and more than a thousand other top tech leaders in asking for a pause in the rapid and runaway development of AI.
To tell you the truth, I think this list will continue to grow to an incredible size. These technology leaders are warning us to not move so quickly into the AI wilderness.
Is it wise to ignore their warnings?
Should we be blind about AI and ignore tech experts warnings?
They say this is an area of the great unknown, even for the developers of Chatbot technology like ChatGPT, GPT4, GPT5, Bard and advanced AI. Even they don’t understand the impact this new technology will have on civilization, both now and down the road.
If that’s the case, do we continue to drive at high speed down this road with blinder on? That would be crazy. Yet, that is exactly what we are doing today. Once we pass a certain point, it may be too late to pull back and do anything to stop it.
AI development is racing to be first, not safe or controllable
Plus, if we pause AI development, it will only put us behind the global eight ball which will not stop or even slow down.
You see, other countries won’t wait. They will keep moving forward at breakneck speed. So, if we delay, we may be left behind in the AI dust.
Today, the race is on to be first without concern about the safety of this new technology. After all, we all know how runaway technology can impact our personal privacy, security and more.
These things can sneak up on us when we are not looking. Example. This morning with my coffee group, we were discussing an obscure topic. Something we have never discussed before.
Then suddenly, several of us started seeing ads on our iPhone and Android smartphones about that same, obscure topic.
Android and iPhone smartphones already invade our privacy
Yes, the smartphone and that means companies and devices like the Apple iPhone and Google Android are always in the background, listening to every word we say.
Privacy is just an illusion today. We lost it years ago. If that’s true, then what impact will AI bring in coming years?
Today, companies are using this for marketing purposes, but this is too powerful to be left unchecked. What if tomorrow governments and other countries or adversaries started using this to control a population or worse.
That’s part of what Musk and Wozniak are warning us about. So, don’t think this warning has no basis. There is a real, imminent danger if we do not carefully watch each step we take going forward.
Generative AI, Chatbot, ChatGPT, GPT4, Bard, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI
To tell you the truth I see both sides and I don’t have the answer. I want AI companies to grow. I want the good to continue. However, I also want to protect our society and economy today and tomorrow.
So, either we pause, which may give us time to catch our balance, but at the same time put us at a competitive disadvantage. Or we continue to move forward at racing speed, with blinders on, hoping we don’t wreck.
That’s the crazy choice we have to make today.
One thing is for sure, something needs to be done. Perhaps we need to approach this like the nuclear bomb decades ago in order to keep us from going off the deep end. This is one of the most important issues we have ever faced in our lifetime, and we need to get right.