OpenAI CEO Sam Altman And ‘Father Of China’s Great Firewall’ Sound Alarm Over Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Fang Bingxing – considered the ‘father of China’s Great Firewall’, are joining OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk in raising concerns regarding the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).

“We’ve got to be careful here,” the 37-year-old Altman told ABC News last week, adding “I think people should be happy that we are a little bit scared of this.”

“I’m particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation … Now that they’re getting better at writing computer code, [they] could be used for offensive cyber-attacks.”

That said, Altman also thinks it could be “the greatest technology humanity has yet developed.”

OpenAI is the company behind Chat GPT, which launched “GPT-4” less than two weeks ago. The highly sophisticated chatbot can reach almost perfect scores on SAT math tests, and achieve a 90% on the US bar exam.

And it has competitors…

Other AI-based startups are making surprising advancements in the field as well. RAD AI recently launched the first AI marketing platform built to understand emotion, and some of the largest companies on the planet are already using it.

GenesisAI is a startup building a marketplace to allow for any business to integrate AI and automation into their business. Meaning soon AI might be just as much of an integral part of a business as employees themselves. –Benzinga

According to Altman, however, ChatGPT-4 uses deductive reasoning vs. memorization, which can lead to inaccurate results.

“The thing that I try to caution people the most is what we call the ‘hallucinations problem’” Altman told ABC News. “The model will confidently state things as if they were facts (but they) are entirely made up.”

Altman thinks there is a need for regulation of AI in general.

“There will be other people who don’t put some of the safety limits that we put on,” he said. “Society, I think, has a limited amount of time to figure out how to react to that, how to regulate that, how to handle it.”

Also concerned over GPT-4 and similar AI is Fang Bingxing, the father of China’s so-called Great Firewall.

According to Fang, such chatbots can lead to an “information cocoon” (as opposed to the free flow of information in China?)

“People’s perspectives can be manipulated as they seek all kinds of answers from AI,” he told Red Star News, a media affiliate to state-backed Chengdu Economic Daily, as reported by SCMP.

Fang, a computer scientist and former government official, is widely considered the chief designer of China’s notorious internet censorship and surveillance system. He played a key role in creating and developing the Great Firewall, a sophisticated system of internet filters and blocks that allows the Chinese government to control what its citizens can access online.

The Great Firewall has been fortified over the past decade, blocking Chinese netizens’ access to a wide range of foreign websites and online services including Facebook, Twitter and Google. -SCMP

Fang also warned that when AI evolves further, it could pose a threat to humanity.

“Now it’s simply software used in an online chat-like scenario. If it’s incorporated into robots and cars, we need to stay vigilant for the potential harm they could do to humans.”