Much Ado About Nothing: Pausing AI’s development won't ‘solve challenges,’ says Bill Gates 

Several tech moguls and experts on AI have signed an open letter calling for the halting of any development of AI models that would make it surpass OpenAI’s GPT-4. This effectively means that the development of GPT-4 would also be halted. As with everything else that he is involved in, the most prominent name who signed the open letter, is Elon Musk.

Musk isn’t the only one who has signed the open letter. Other notable people include Steve Wozniak, one of the earliest co-founders of Apple Computers, and noted author and historian, Yuval Noah Harari. 

Also read: Elon Musk and AI experts call for pause in development of AI systems that outperform GPT-4

Responding to this call for a halt in the development of AI models, Bill Gates, in his first public comments since the open letter was made public, has said that pausing the development of AI won’t solve the challenges that the world faces from it today.

Halting AI development is not the solution, says Gates
The technologist-turned-philanthropist stated that it would be preferable to concentrate on how to best use AI developments, as it was difficult to see how a pause could function worldwide.

He made this comment in response to a question that referred to the open letter co-signed by Elon Musk and more than 1,000 AI experts, which was published last week. The letter demanded an immediate halt in the development of systems “more powerful” than Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s new GPT-4, which can hold human-like conversations, compose songs, and summarise lengthy documents.

In the letter, the expert, Steve Wozniak, stated that the possible dangers and benefits to society must be evaluated.

Also read: Halting AI: Musk and China share an ulterior motive in calling for pause on development of ChatGPT

“I don’t think putting one group on hold solves the problems,” Gates said on Monday. “Clearly, these devices have a lot of advantages… What we need to do is pinpoint the difficult regions.”

Microsoft has attempted to beat its competitors by making a multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI. While presently focusing on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has been a vocal backer of AI, describing it as “as revolutionary as the Internet or mobile phones.”

In defense of AI…
In a blog titled “The Age of AI has Begun,” released a day before the open letter on March 21, he stated that he thinks AI should be used to help decrease some of the world’s worst injustices.

He also stated in the conversation that any halt would be difficult to implement.

“I’m not sure who they’re saying could stop, whether every country in the world would agree to stop, and why they’d stop,” he said. “However, there are many different points of view in this area.”

Musk and Gates’ at loggerheads
This battle of whether to develop AI any further or not may very well boil down to the people representing both of the camps – Musk and Gates – both of whom have a very coloured history of being at loggerheads, when it comes to AI.

Also read: Musk vs Gates: Elon Musk mocks Bill Gates, says his knowledge of AI was always limited

Elon Musk and Bill Gates have been at loggerheads over several subjects over the years. Gates famously has taken a short position on Tesla, believing that Tesla EVs, as wonderful as they are, are not the solution to the global environmental crisis. 

However, no subject has been as contentious between them as AI and Machine learning. Elon Musk, historically has been an alarmist about AI, whereas Gates, has been accused of being a little too optimistic about AI.

As with several subjects, especially related to tech, Tesla CEO Elon Musk considers himself to be sort of an expert in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. As a result, Musk has been very vocal about artificial intelligence. Initially, he had taken the position of an extreme alarmist, saying that AI will be the cause of the end of the world.

Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft, on the other hand, has been a champion for AI and has frequently stated that apps like ChatGPT are the future and will help people in both their work and personal lives.

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