Ok, have you read the open letter. It’s not an ordinary letter, but of great importance regarding the risks of AI. The concerning thing is that this letter was signed by former and current employees of OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

OpenAI you all know, has come up with recent improvements in their GPT model. Google DeepMind is a subsidiary of Google, that shocked everyone after its AlphaGo program defeated the human Go expert. I saw a documentary on Netflix sometime back. I guess, they removed it from Netflix later. The documentary is a must watch. The end part where you get emotional and start rooting for the human player. It does not end well. It scares us as it is a powerful documentary that highlights on how incredibly intelligent these human-made machines are.

Now back to our highlight, the open letter. It addresses wide range of risks ranging from misinformation and manipulation to even deadlier – human extinction. The units made specially for this purpose in the organization are doing little to stop this. The organizations have weak obligations to share this information with the government. To the civil society, well, they are kept in the dark. This unregulated AI advancements is something even Prof Geoffrey Hinton discussed on BBC Newsnight.

The employees are asking for fair demands: allow them raise concerns, criticize and question, enable anonymous reporting process, foster open discussions and protect employees who disclose risks.

It is yet to be seen how OpenAI and Google will treat the existing employees. Of course, taking action against them would mean they are right. Acknowledging them positively would also imply they were right. In the latter case, it would be a win-win for everyone for they have to make it safe for all. What if these companies agree like before and behind closed-doors continue their unregulated works? We would not know until a catastrophic disaster occurs. We would then protest, at which point it would be too late. And so, we must believe in these insiders and alumni who are advocating for a regulated process. Let us also, put trust in these companies that they will not make Sci-fi scenarios a reality. Yeah, I know at the end, it’s business for them. A race to be the number one.

What’s your take on this?  And, by the way, drink your coffee before it gets cold.

Read the letter here

^{Featured image by Debby Hudson on Unsplash}