The letter was issued by the non-profit Future of Life Institute
and signed by over 1,000 people including Musk, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque
and researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind.
It called for a pause on advanced AI development until
shared safety protocols for such designs were developed, implemented and
audited by independent experts.
"Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we
are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be
manageable," the letter said.
The letter also detailed potential risks to society and civilization
by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political
disruptions, and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance
and regulatory authorities.
The letter comes as EU police force Europol on Monday joined
a chorus of ethical and legal concerns over advanced AI like ChatGPT, warning
about the potential misuse of the system in phishing attempts, disinformation
and cybercrime.
Musk, whose carmaker Tesla is using AI for an autopilot
system, has been vocal about his concerns about AI.
Since its release last year, Microsoft-backed OpenAI's
ChatGPT has prompted rivals to accelerate developing similar large language
models, and companies to integrate generative AI models into their products.
Sam Altman, chief executive at OpenAI, has not signed the
letter, a spokesperson at Future of Life told Reuters. OpenAI did not
immediately respond to request for comment.
"The letter isn't perfect, but the spirit is right: we
need to slow down until we better understand the ramifications," said Gary
Marcus, an emeritus professor at New York University who signed the letter.
"They can cause serious harm - the big players are
becoming increasingly secretive about what they are doing, which makes it hard
for society to defend against whatever harms may materialise," he added.