Sridhar Vembu, the CEO and co-founder of Zoho, compared the progress in artificial intelligence to nuclear weapons, cloning, etc, and has called for “no further” development in the field until a policy is chalked out to handle the threat.
Vembu, along with Rajiv Kumar, Chairman of Pahle India Foundation, and Sharad Sharma co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation put out a statement that noted the increasing threat of AI.
While calling for a temporary halt in the development of advanced AI models across the world, the statement read, “The thus far-no-further principle has been invoked in the past as well. For example, there was a universal agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Similarly, cloning technology was also restricted after Dolly the sheep was cloned.”
“The recent Open Letter issued by the Future of Life Institute calls upon all AI labs worldwide to pause for six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT 4. They suggest that this time should be used to assess how to manage their profound impact on all aspects of human life,” the statement read.
Vembu and others further said that the call for a strong policy around AI is needed to curb the loss of jobs, especially in a country like India.
“For a remarkably young country like India, with a median age of 29, AI offers a huge opportunity to raise labour productivity, build a knowledge society and further enhance our demographic dividend. At the same time, it is also clear that AI could put millions of jobs at risk almost overnight,” the statement highlighted.
The statement further read: “The dizzying pace of the ongoing digital revolution has meant that AI is inveigling itself into the economic, psychosocial, and cultural aspects of human life at an unprecedented speed. The downstream effects of adopting technologies such as AI without essential due diligence and appropriate safeguards can cause unprecedented disruption of the existing social order.”
Vembu and others also tried to contrast newer AI models from older ones. “New models of AI are emerging where AI can use various tools, act, observe, and update its behavior. These approaches can lead to far more powerful AI than GPT-4.,” the statement read.
Vembu, Kumar, and Sharma believe that this can have “chaotic” and “catastrophic consequences”.
“It is now evident that the emergence of powerful AI, with all its transformational potential, could also be the harbinger of chaotic – and potentially catastrophic – consequences for humanity,” the statement highlighted.