Close the Gates to an Inhuman Future: How and Why We Should Choose to Not Develop Superhuman General-purpose Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Recent dramatic advances in artificial intelligence indicate that in the coming years, humanity may irreversibly cross a threshold by creating superhuman general-purpose AI: AI that is better than humans at cognitive tasks in general in the way that AI is currently unbeatable in certain domains.

This would upend core aspects of human society, present many unprecedented risks, and is likely to be uncontrollable in several senses. We can choose to not do so, starting by instituting hard limits – placed at the national and international level, and verified by hardware security measures – on the computation that can be used to train and run neural networks. With these limits in place, AI research and industry can focus on making both narrow and general-purpose AI that humans can understand and control, and from which we can reap enormous benefit.

Keywords: general-purpose AI, AI governance