#11 What's Huang this week...

I've switched everything over to beehiiv, a different publishing platform with some different growth features. Who knows, maybe after a few weeks of testing I'll switch back to substack. For now, let's see how this goes. 

-Howard Huang

What happened this week

The top leaders in AI have come together, signed an open letter citing potential risks to humanity, and asked for an immediate pause on giant AI experiments. 

Here is a list of some of the important individuals who have signed the letter.

1. Elon Musk - CEO - Tesla, SpaceX, & Twitter.

2. Stuart Russell - Berkley Professor of Computer Science, author of the standard textbook "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach."

3. Emad Mostaque - CEO Stability AI

4. John Hopfield - American scientist, inventor of associative neural network

5. Yoshua Bengio - Scientific Director, Turing prize winner

6. Steve Wozniak - Apple Co-founder

Letter summarized by ChatGPT-4 😉

AI systems with human-competitive intelligence pose significant risks to society and humanity. Despite warnings, AI labs continue to develop increasingly powerful digital minds that are difficult to understand or control. As AI systems become more advanced, we must question the potential consequences of their widespread use. These decisions should not be left to unelected tech leaders, and AI development should be paused until we can confidently manage the risks.

We call for a 6-month pause on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, allowing AI labs and experts to develop safety protocols that ensure these systems are safe. This pause should be public and verifiable. AI development should focus on improving the safety, interpretability, transparency, and alignment of existing systems.

Additionally, AI developers should work with policymakers to create robust governance systems, including dedicated regulatory authorities, oversight, provenance systems, auditing, liability for harm, public funding for safety research, and institutions to address economic and political disruptions.

By implementing these measures, we can enjoy a prosperous future with AI while giving society time to adapt. Like with other technologies that posed potential harm, we should enjoy an AI summer, rather than rushing unprepared into an uncertain future.

What I watched this week

Quote of the week