Bill Gates opposes proposals to halt AI development

Proposals to halt AI development would not “solve the challenges” that lie ahead, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in his first public remarks since an open letter triggered a discussion about the technology’s future.

The technologist-turned-philanthropist stated that it would be preferable to focus on how to effectively employ AI breakthroughs, since it was difficult to see how a stop could work internationally.

His comments come after an open letter co-signed by Elon Musk and over a thousand AI experts, published last week, demanded an immediate halt in the development of systems “more powerful” than Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s new GPT-4, which can hold human-like conversations, compose songs, and summarise lengthy documents.

In the letter, the experts, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, stated that the possible hazards and benefits to society must be considered.

“I don’t think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges,” Gates said on Monday. “Clearly there’s huge benefits to these things… What we need to do is identify the tricky areas.”

Microsoft has attempted to outperform competitors by making multibillion-dollar investments in ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

Despite now focusing on the charitable Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has been a vocal advocate of AI, describing it as “as revolutionary as the Internet or mobile phones.”

In a blog post titled “The Age of AI Has Begun,” published a day before the open letter on March 21, he stated that he believes AI should be utilised to help eliminate some of the world’s biggest injustices. He also stated in the interview that any pause would be difficult to implement.

“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 said. “But there are a lot of different opinions in this area.”