OpenAI goes to war with US Defense
Dozens of activists gathered outside OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco, calling for a boycott of artificial intelligence in light of the Sam Altman-led company's announcement to collaborate with the Pentagon
Protests outside OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco against the company's ambition to work with the Pentagon.
At the beginning of the week, around thirty demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of the company behind ChatChpt and led by Sam Altman (pictured), protesting against the development of next-generation artificial intelligence defined as as intelligent as the average person, called Agi, by 'agency.
The initiative, organized by the groups Pause AI and No Agi, aimed to ask OpenAI engineers to abandon their work on advanced artificial intelligence systems, Bloomberg reports.
Protesters were particularly concerned about how OpenAI quietly changed its usage policies in January, removing a ban on “military and warfare” applications for its products.
Additionally, an OpenAI executive said in an interview with Bloomberg in January that the company is working with the U.S. Department of Defense on open source cybersecurity software and is in talks with the U.S. government to help to prevent veteran suicide.
The news comes after years of controversy over tech companies developing technology for military use. Employees of all tech giants involved with military contracts have expressed concern after thousands of Google employees forced the Mountain View giant to abandon Project Maven. That is, the Pentagon program that aims to build image recognition systems to improve drone attacks in war zones.
All the details.
OPENAI'S LATEST MOVES
Earlier this year, OpenAI dropped its ban on the military use of ChatGpt and its other AI tools. Although its policies still state that users should not “use our service to harm themselves or others,” including to “develop or use weapons,” CNBC found.
The move coincided with the announcement of collaboration with the US Department of Defense on artificial intelligence tools, including open source cybersecurity tools, according to an interview given by Anna Makanju, OpenAI's vice president of global affairs, to Bloomberg House at the World Economic Forum in Davos together with CEO Sam Altman.
THE ANNOUNCEMENTS IN DAVOS
During the interview at the Davos Forum, the OpenAI manager claimed that her collaboration with the army "is very in line with what we want to see in the world".
Then a spokesperson for the company explained: “Our policy does not allow our tools to be used to harm people, develop weapons, for surveillance of communications, or to injure others or destroy property.” “There are, however, national security use cases that align with our mission,” he said.
OpenAI's quiet policy reversal did not please the organizers of this week's demonstration.
THE PROTESTS AGAINST AGI
The message that came from the US collective on Monday is clear: stop the development of artificial intelligence which could lead to a future in which machines will surpass human intelligence, abstaining from any further military affiliation.
“On February 12, we asked OpenAI to end its relationship with the Pentagon and not accept any military clients,” the event description reads. “If their ethical and security boundaries can be revised for convenience, they cannot be trusted.”
Both Pause AI and No Agi share the common goal of stopping the development of new artificial intelligence but their methods diverge. The first is open to the idea of a technology created with boundaries and limits, i.e. in a safe way, while No Agi firmly opposes its creation, underlining the potential psychological threats and the loss of meaning that would result for human life , reports Ansa .
At Bloomberg , Sam Kirchner, one of the organizers of the event, said that AGI will remove meaning from human existence by hindering our ability to contribute and make discoveries.
THE POSITION OF THE COMPANY LED BY SAM ALTMAN
An OpenAI spokesperson said the company maintains a ban on using its tools to build weapons, harm people or destroy property.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/openai-va-alla-guerra-con-la-difesa-usa/ on Thu, 15 Feb 2024 06:41:44 +0000.