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Microsoft president: Don’t expect a 6-month pause on AI research

Updated Apr 12, 2023, 11:50am EDT
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Microsoft President Brad Smith (left) with Semafor Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons
Tasos Katopodis for Semafor
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Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said Wednesday that he doesn’t believe tech companies will implement a 6-month pause on article intelligence research, after Elon Musk and other tech figures called for the hiatus.

“I don’t see people pausing the research,” Smith said Wednesday at Semafor’s World Economic Summit. He added: “A six month pause does nothing if everything pauses, including the world of regulation. I’d rather see government move faster.”

Last month, Musk joined Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, and other researchers and academics in signing an open letter that called for the 6-month moratorium, in order to come up with safety and ethics protocol for powerful AI systems.

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Microsoft, along with other tech giants, moved swiftly in recent months to announce its plans to integrate AI into its products, including its Bing search engine and Microsoft Office products. It is investing billions into OpenAI, the company behind viral chatbot ChatGPT.

Smith said rather than a 6-month pause, “Let’s ask ourselves, what would we like to get done in six months? ... Let’s put together our best ideas and then let’s move forward the pace of policy and law and regulation.”

Asked whether he hangs out with Musk, he said: “Not socially.”

Earlier in his interview at the summit in Washington, Smith called for swifter government regulation of AI.

“No technology should be above the law,” he said.

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