They set out their demands in an open letter published on Thursday by The Elders organization (the founders are Branson himself and the ex-president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela).
As CNBC notes, the message calls for decisive action against the escalating dangers of the climate crisis, pandemics, nuclear weapons and unguided AI. World leaders are asked to adopt a long-term strategy and express “the determination to solve problems rather than just manage them, the wisdom to make decisions based on scientific evidence and reason, and the humility to listen to all who are affected.”
The signatories are calling for urgent multilateral action, including financing the transition away from fossil fuels, signing a just treaty to fight the pandemic, restarting nuclear weapons negotiations, and building the global governance needed to make AI a “force for good.”
The letter was also published with the support of the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit organization founded by MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallin, which aims to direct transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence to benefit life and protect against large-scale. Among the signatories, in addition to the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson and Charles Oppenheimer, the grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer, you can see the name of the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Tegmark says The Elders wanted to convey that while the technology itself is not “evil,” it remains a “tool” that can lead to dire consequences if it is developed quickly “in the hands of the wrong people.”
“The old strategy of focusing on efficient use [когда речь идет о новых технологиях] has always been about learning from mistakes,” Tegmark told CNBC. “We invented fire, then the fire extinguisher. We invented the car, then learned from our mistakes and invented the seat belt, traffic lights and speed limits.”
The letter comes just ahead of the Munich Security Conference, where officials, military leaders and diplomats will discuss international security amid escalating global armed conflicts, including wars between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Israel and Hamas. Tegmark will attend the event to defend the content of the letter.
The Future of Life Institute also released an open letter last year, backed by Tesla boss Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, calling on leading AI labs such as OpenAI to halt work on training AI models more powerful than GPT-4 — for now. the moment of the company’s most advanced model. Otherwise, the signatories fear a “loss of control” over civilization, which could lead to mass destruction of jobs.
Join the competition of ITS authors! Win cool prizes from our Logitech partners – professional gaming steering wheel and low-profile gaming keyboards.
