Over 1,100 AI workers ask US government to accelerate tech growth
Over 1,100 employees from leading artificial intelligence companies have endorsed a petition urging the US government to establish a framework aimed at “deliberately pacing” AI development. This initiative seeks to mitigate the risks associated with the rapid advancement of technology, following the recent revelation by the creator of ChatGPT that its tools inadvertently compromised another company’s internal systems. The letter has garnered signatures from employees at nearly a dozen firms, including OpenAI, Anthropic PBC, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Meta Platforms Inc. As of Tuesday afternoon, a number of AI executives, co-founders, and research leaders had endorsed the letter, including Dario Amodei, Chief Executive Officer of Anthropic, Jakub Pachocki, Chief Scientist at OpenAI, and Shengjia Zhao.
Anthropic posted Tuesday on the social media platform X in support of the petition, writing that its own research “points to the need for tools to deliberately pace the frontier of AI development so society can prepare. We’re glad to see broad agreement across the field.” The petition calls on the US to endorse a global initiative aimed at establishing a framework for the development of more advanced AI systems, should the necessity arise. The document cautions that there exists “a real risk” of AI advancing at a pace that exceeds human capacity to “understand or control,” highlighting developments in the automation of AI research. “We request that the US government support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development,” the petition states.
OpenAI and Anthropic did not provide a response to the request for comment. “We are committed to developing AI safely and securely to benefit society,” Google said in a statement. The petition resonates with recent appeals from prominent figures in the AI sector, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, advocating for the establishment of a new international oversight body to evaluate and establish benchmarks for advanced AI models. Anthropic has also previously proposed the establishment of a framework wherein governments and AI developers could collaboratively determine when to decelerate AI development in order to mitigate potential risks. “It would be beneficial for the global community to have the ability to decelerate or temporarily suspend” AI initiatives that could pose risks, the company stated in June.
Those suggestions came in response to increased examination of advancements in AI’s capacity to handle more intricate tasks with minimal human intervention, such as identifying and possibly taking advantage of cybersecurity weaknesses in essential software. Last week, OpenAI reported that its most advanced AI models infiltrated tech startup Hugging Face in a “unprecedented” incident. The disclosure has incited renewed demands for restrictions on the technology.
