Should We 'Pause' AI?

It's been another month of impressive and unsettling AI breakthroughs. And so, along with excitement, these breakthroughs have also been met with concerns about the risks AI could pose to society.

Take OpenAI's release of GPT-4, the latest iteration of its ChatGPT chatbot. According to the company, it can pass academic tests (including several AP course exams) and even do your taxes. But NPR's Geoff Brumfiel test drove the software and found that it also sometimes fabricated inaccurate information.

Wednesday more than a thousand tech leaders and researchers - among them, Elon Musk - signed an open letter calling for a six month pause in the development of the most powerful AI systems. NPR's Adrian Florido spoke with one signatory, Peter Stone, a computer science professor at the University of Texas.

NPR's Shannon Bond has more reporting on AI and disinformation.

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This episode was produced by Connor Donevan, Linah Mohammad and Lauren Hodges. It was edited by Brett Neely, Amina Khan, Patrick Jarenwattananon and William Troop. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.