Bill Gates has spoken out against calls to pause the development of AI stating that it won’t address the challenges ahead, Reuters reported.
The Microsoft co-founder suggested that instead of pausing AI development, more focus should be given to understanding how to best use the technology.
Bill Gates disagrees with Elon Musk-supported proposal to pause progress in advanced A.I
Gates’ comments follow an open letter signed by over 1,000 AI experts, including Elon Musk. The letter demanded a halt in the development of “more powerful” systems, such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s GPT-4, which has the ability to hold human-like conversations and summarize long documents.
In the open letter signed by more than 1,000 AI experts, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, it was emphasized that the potential risks and benefits of AI need to be evaluated for society.
“I don’t think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges,” Gates said on Monday.
“Clearly there’s huge benefits to these things… what we need to do is identify the tricky areas.”
He also noted the tension in the tech industry over the notion: “But there are a lot of different opinions in this area.”
Gates says the focus should be on leveraging the technology for social good
Gates has stated that he disagrees with the notion that a ban on the development of AI is the appropriate approach to ensuring the balance between risks and benefits, according to Fortune.
He commented that while there are conflicting views in the tech industry regarding this issue, he does not believe a pause in AI development would be effective.
Despite his current focus on philanthropy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates has been a strong advocate for AI and believes it to be as revolutionary as the Internet and mobile phones.
In a blog post published on March 21 titled “The Age of AI has begun,” he stated that AI can be leveraged to help reduce some of the world’s most significant inequalities.
“I don’t really understand who they’re saying could stop, and would every country in the world agree to stop, and why to stop,” he told Reuters. “But there are a lot of different opinions in this area.”
