A coalition spanning US conservative figure Steve Bannon, progressives, labor unions and faith groups announced Wednesday a joint declaration of principles on artificial intelligence, framing the effort as a pushback against what they called Silicon Valley’s reckless deployment of AI.
The declaration lays out 34 principles grouped under five themes: keeping humans in charge, avoiding concentration of power, protecting the human experience, human agency and liberty, and corporate accountability.
“This declaration makes clear AI has incredible opportunities to help humanity flourish like never before,” Future of Life Institute founder and chair Max Tegmark, who helped coordinate the project, told AFP.
“But unfortunately, the path we’re on right now is this race to replace, where you have a small number of incredibly powerful companies very openly saying that they want to build super intelligence, which, by definition, can replace every human job.”
Future of Life made headlines in 2023 when the institute published an open letter calling on all AI laboratories to pause for at least six months the training of state-of-the-art systems given the urgent risks to society.
The letter went viral and drew more than 30,000 signatures, including from Elon Musk, who went on to join the AI race with the creation of his own lab, xAI.
The coalition’s breadth is striking in an era of deep political polarization, Tegmark said.
Signatories include the American Federation of Teachers and the progressive advocacy group Public Citizen alongside conservative media figures Bannon and Glenn Beck.
Faith organizations including the Congress of Christian Leaders and the G20 Interfaith Forum Association also signed on, as did the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA.
Individual endorsers range from former presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker to AI researchers Stuart Russell and Yoshua Bengio.
“This is the first time that there is a very clear alternative presented, a better path that is endorsed by such a broad coalition,” Tegmark said.
Among the specific measures called for: a ban on legal personhood for AI systems, mandatory labelling identifying AI-generated content, and criminal liability for technology executives whose products cause serious harm.
The announcement coincides with an $8 million advertising campaign launched earlier this month by the institute called “Protect What’s Human,” targeting voters in Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan and North Carolina — states where AI’s economic impact is already being felt, the institute said.
Founded in 2014, Future of Life Institute is a well funded think tank with staff working across the United States and Europe on risks posed by technology.
It has drawn fierce criticism from major figures in Silicon Valley and the White House, who characterize its efforts as AI doomerism that will slow innovation and cede ground to China in the AI race.
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