AI Risks Spark Concern Among OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind Staff

A group of current and former employees from AI companies, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic, have expressed concerns about the potential risks associated with AI technologies’ rapid development and deployment.

The problems, outlined in an open letter, range from the spread of misinformation to the possible loss of control over autonomous AI systems and even to the dire possibility of human extinction.

OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic Staff AI Concerns 

13 former and current employees at artificial intelligence (AI) developers OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), and DeepMind (Google), along with the “Godfathers of AI” Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton and AI scientist Stuart Russell, have initiated a “Right to Warn AI” petition. The petition aims to establish a commitment from frontier AI companies to allow employees to raise risk-related concerns about AI internally and with the public.

A group of current, and former, OpenAI employees – some of them anonymous – along with Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Stuart Russell have released an open letter this morning entitled ‘A Right to Warn about Advanced Artificial Intelligence’.https://t.co/uQ3otSQyDA pic.twitter.com/QnhbUg8WsU

— Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_) June 4, 2024

In the open letter, the authors explain that due to the financial motives, AI companies focus on product creation rather than its safety. The signatories state that these financial incentives compromise the supervision process and that AI companies have limited legal requirements to disclose information about their systems’ strengths and weaknesses to governments.

The letter also focuses on the current status of AI regulation and argues that the companies cannot be trusted to share essential data.

Subsequently,  they claim that the threats presented by AI without proper regulation, such as dissemination of fake news and the worsening of inequality, call for a more active and responsible approach to AI innovation and application.

Safety Concerns and Calls for Change

The employees have requested changes within the AI industry and have asked companies to implement a system where current and former employees can report their issues concerning risk. They also suggest that AI firms should not impose non-disclosure agreements that prevent criticism, so that people can express concerns about the dangers of AI technologies.

William Saunders, a former OpenAI employee, said,

“Today, those who understand the most about how the cutting-edge AI systems function and the potential dangers associated with their use are not able to share their insights freely because they are afraid of the consequences and non-disclosure agreements are too restrictive.”

The letter is issued at a time when there are concerns within the AI field about the safety of highly sophisticated AI systems. There are already cases when image generators from OpenAI and Microsoft are creating photos with disinformation about voting, although such content is prohibited.

At the same time, there are concerns that AI safety is being ‘de-prioritised,’ especially in the pursuit of AGI that seeks to develop software that can mimic human cognition and learning.

Company Responses and Controversies

OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic still need to address the issues raised by the employees. Nevertheless, OpenAI has stressed the importance of safety and the proper discussion regarding AI technologies. The company has seen internal issues, such as the disbanding of its Superalignment safety team, which has made people doubt the company’s commitment to safety.

Nevertheless, as noted by Coingape earlier, OpenAI created a new Safety and Security Committee to make important decisions and improve the safety of AI as the company advances.

Despite this, some former board members have accused OpenAI management of inefficiency, particularly in terms of the organization’s approach to safety issues. In a podcast, a former board member, Helen Toner, disclosed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was allegedly fired for not sharing information with the board.

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