Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has stated that calls to halt the development of artificial intelligence (AI) will not address the challenges it poses, according to a Reuters interview.
The statement followed an open letter, signed by more than 1,000 AI experts including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, which called for a pause in the development of new systems more powerful than OpenAI’s recently announced GPT-4.
The group claimed that potential risks and benefits to society should be assessed.
But Gates argued that it was better to focus on how best to utilize AI and that identifying tricky areas was the key to progress.
Gates, a long-time supporter of AI said in a March podcast that he believes AI should be harnessed to reduce some of the world’s most profound inequalities.
The billionaire has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI.
Gates said he was unsure how a pause would work globally or who would be able to enforce it, Reuters notes.
“I don’t really understand who they’re saying could stop, and would every country in the world agree to stop, and why to stop,” he stated. “But there are a lot of different opinions in this area.”
