Future Shock: Generative AI and the International AI Policy and Governance Crisis
Summary
On March 29, 2023, the Future of Life Institute (FLI) published an open letter calling on “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4” (FLI, 2023). Signed by eminent academics, CEOs, and other tech luminaries—including Yoshua Bengio, Elon Musk, and Steve Wozniak—the letter lamented the lack of “planning and management” that characterized the hapless behavior of “AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.” “Powerful AI systems,” it continued, “should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.” For the letter’s authors, the absence of actionable, binding, and enforceable governance mechanisms to ensure appropriate control over the risks and harms of generative AI (GenAI) technologies made a 6-month cessation of tech company research activities necessary.