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A letter signed by Elon Musk and hundreds of experts calling for a pause in the development of artificial intelligence is a "hot mess" of "AI hype" that even misrepresents an academic paper, critics say.
Billionaire Tesla boss Musk and other luminaries wrote that "AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity".
But Timnit Gebru, whose academic paper was cited to support that claim, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that her article actually warns against making such inflated claims about AI.
"They basically say the opposite of what we say and cite our paper," she wrote.
Her co-author Emily Bender said the letter was a "hot mess" and was "just dripping with AI hype".
The risks of AI, she wrote, were never about AI being "too powerful" but rather they were "about concentration of power in the hands of people, about reproducing systems of oppression, about damage to the information ecosystem".
The open letter, published on Wednesday on the website of the Musk-funded Future of Life Institute, called for a six-month pause in development of powerful AI systems.
The signatories, who included academics and tech titans like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, argued that the pause should be used to bolster regulation and ensure the systems were safe.
'Silly distraction'
However, just hours after the letter was published, signatory Emad Mostaque, boss of British start-up Stability AI, had backed away from one of its central demands.
"I don't think a six-month pause is the best idea," he wrote on Twitter.
He said, though, that there were "some interesting things" in the letter and it would help spark a debate.
Another signatory, psychology professor Gary Marcus, spent much of the day battling on Twitter with critics including computer science academic Nick Holliman, who accused him of taking part in a "silly distraction".
"I have repeatedly argued... that we must be concerned with how existing systems perpetuate past bias," he wrote after one user suggested the letter was signed by "white men" unconcerned with the current problems caused by algorithms.
Big tech companies like Google, Meta and Microsoft have spent years working on AI systems -- previously known as machine learning or big data -- to help with translations, search and targeted advertising.
But late last year San Francisco firm OpenAI supercharged the interest in AI when it launched ChatGPT, a bot that can generate screeds of natural language text from a short prompt.
OpenAI earlier this month unveiled GPT-4, a more powerful version of its chatbot, prompting the open letter from Musk and more than 1,000 experts.
© 2023 AFP
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Three months after leaving for the United States in the final hours of his term, Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro is returning home Thursday to reenter politics -- complicating life for his successor and nemesis, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The far-right ex-army captain, who skipped town two days before Lula's inauguration on January 1, is due to arrive back in Brasilia on a commercial flight from Orlando, Florida at 7:10 am (1010 GMT).
It is a high-stakes bet for the former president, who is facing legal trouble on various fronts in Brazil -- notably for his alleged role in inciting supporters who rioted through the halls of power on January 8 in a failed bid to oust Lula, the veteran leftist who beat him in a divisive election in October.
It threatens to be a tense day in Brasilia, where authorities vowed to block supporters from holding a huge welcome rally at the airport.
Bolsonaro, 68, is set to start a new job next week as honorary president of his Liberal Party (PL), earning 41,600 reais (around $8,000) a month.
The ex-president (2019-2022), who recently rented a house in a gated community in Brasilia, has said he plans to criss-cross Brazil "doing politics" and "upholding the banner of conservatism."
But "I'm not going to lead any opposition," Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil as he prepared to board his flight.
"I'm going to participate with my party as someone with experience."
Return of 'the face of the right'
Authorities in Brasilia urged Bolsonaro supporters not to rally at the airport, saying police would be out in force to keep traffic flowing smoothly.
The Liberal Party appeared ready to keep the arrival low-key, saying Bolsonaro would travel from the airport to party headquarters, where his wife, Michelle, party president Valdemar Costa Neto and "other authorities" would be waiting to greet him in a closed-door event.
But hardline Bolsonaro backers have plans of their own.
There are viral calls on social media for supporters to flood the airport to welcome the man they call "Messiah" -- or "Messias," Bolsonaro's middle name.
Some supporters are planning to hold one of the ex-president's trademark motorcycle rallies, vowing: "Brasilia will come to a halt."
"Let's pave the way for Bolsonaro's return to the presidency," YouTube star-turned-Congressman Gustavo Gayer said in a video, calling for a massive turnout.
"Bolsonaro is the face of the right in Brazil," supporter Cassia Christina told AFP in Rio de Janeiro.
"His name revived the right wing and patriotism in this country," said the 32-year-old vendor.
The homecoming could reenergize the opposition, which has been weakened by Bolsonaro's self-imposed exile and the widespread backlash to the violence and destruction of the January 8 riots, when supporters trashed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.
"We've had five months of a basically dismantled opposition. Now, Bolsonaro's return to Brazil looks set to unite the right," political analyst Jairo Nicolau of the Getulio Vargas Foundation told AFP.
"That could make a big difference. Lula will have to govern with a united opposition."
Legal trouble
But Bolsonaro faces numerous legal woes.
They include no less than five Supreme Court investigations that could potentially send him to jail -- including for allegedly inciting the January 8 riots -- and a recent scandal over allegations he tried to illegally import and keep millions of dollars' worth of jewelry given to him and his wife by Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Police summoned Bolsonaro Wednesday to give a deposition in the Saudi jewels case on April 5, officials told AFP.
He also faces 16 cases before Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which could strip him of his right to run for office for eight years, taking him out of the 2026 presidential race.
Bolsonaro has admitted he could face trouble.
Assessing his odds at a meeting with Brazilian business leaders in the United States earlier this month, he acknowledged he could be declared ineligible to run for office.
"But they won't send me to prison, unless there's some kind of arbitrary decision," he said.
(AFP)
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Cult film director Quentin Tarantino said on Wednesday he has finished the script for what will be his "last" movie.
The US director of hit films including "Kill Bill", "Inglourious Basterds" and "Pulp Fiction" said he expected shooting to start on his 10th film later in the year.
"I have finished the script of what will end up being my last movie," the 60-year-old said while being questioned by Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, at the launch of his new book in Paris.
"I imagine we'll probably shoot it I guess in the fall," Tarantino said.
Tarantino has repeatedly said that he wants to retire after 10 films -- counting the two lengthy episodes of "Kill Bill" as one.
The film, which will be called "The Movie Critic", will be set in 1977, he added.
He denied rumors that it was a biopic of Pauline Kael -- the New Yorker film critic who died in 2001 -- and said it was not devoted to any specific film critic.
Tarantino's directorial debut came with "Reservoir Dogs" in 1992, a low-budget, brutal crime caper that became a cult smash and turned him into one of the industry's most influential filmmakers.
© 2023 AFP
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