Does the tech industry want to pause AI development because of concerns for humanity?

Not everyone agrees with the Future of Life Institute's open letter calling for a moratorium on artificial intelligence (AI) research, signed by some of the top names in the technology industry.

The letter, with more than 31,000 signatures, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, calls on the world to halt the development of AI models larger than GPT-4, the most powerful version behind the ChatGPT app.

The explosion of AI creates excitement, but also comes with concerns that it will cause human extinction in the future.

The letter even suggests that, if “a moratorium cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and impose a formal ban.”

Contrary to the above thinking, CEO Alex Karp of Palantir - a technology company that the whole Silicon Valley "hates", said in an interview on June 8 that "many people are demanding a pause in AI development because they don't have any products in hand".

Without mentioning any specific names, the Palantir CEO said: “People who have nothing to contribute to AI research” are trying to halt the development of this technology so they can “steal” the lead in commercial and military applications.

Asked whether the AI race is similar to the Cold War arms race, Karp said: “The race is already underway, and slowing down doesn’t put it on hold.”

The turning point in AI trends is not big language models like GPT-4, but how AI is used in military applications.

In December 2022, The Times revealed that Palantir's technology had helped Ukraine increase the accuracy, speed and lethality of its artillery attacks despite being on a much smaller scale than Russia.

Palantir Technologies, founded in 2003, sells data analysis software to governments, the military, and private organizations, and has been frequently accused of being behind user privacy violations.

(According to CNBC)

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