Max Tegmark, Co-Founder and President, Future of Life Institute

His scientific interests span from precise cosmology to the ultimate essence of reality, all of which are covered in his new popular book “Our Mathematical Universe.” Known as “Mad Max” for his unconventional views and zest for adventure. Professor of physics at MIT, he has authored over 200 scientific publications and has been featured in several science films. His work on galaxy clustering with the SDSS collaboration was awarded first place in Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year: 2003.” He co-founded the Foundational Questions Institute with Anthony Aguirre.

2023

The Swedish magazine Expo revealed in January 2023 that the FLI had made a $100,000 donation offer to a foundation established by the far-right internet publication Nya Dagbladet in Sweden. Tegmark responded by saying that the grant had been rescinded right away and that the institute had only learned of Nya Dagbladet’s stance a few months after it had been first awarded through due diligence procedures.

FLI released a letter titled “Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter” in March 2023. It was requested that leading AI developers come to a verifiable six-month halt on any systems “more powerful than GPT-4” and utilize that time to set up a safety framework. If that failed, governments were to intervene and impose a moratorium. The letter stated that “recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no-one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control” . The letter mentioned “a profound change in the history of life on Earth” as a possibility, along with the dangers of misinformation produced by AI, human obsolescence, and a loss of control over society as a whole.

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Evan Sharp, Chris Larsen, Gary Marcus, CEOs of AI labs Connor Leahy and Emad Mostaque, lawmaker Andrew Yang, deep-learning expert Yoshua Bengio, and Yuval Noah Harari were among the notable individuals who signed the petition. “The spirit is right, but the letter isn’t perfect,” said Marcus. According to Mostaque, “I don’t think a six month pause is the best idea or agree with everything but there are some interesting things in that letter.” On the other hand, Bengio stated in a news conference that he supported the six-month break. Musk stated that “Leading AGI developers will not heed this warning, but at least it was said.” Fears of existential peril from artificial general intelligence were cited as the driving force behind the motivation of some signatories, including Musk.

The letter from FLI was criticized by the authors of one of the publications listed in it, “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?” Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, and Margaret Mitchell. According to Mitchell, “the letter asserts a set of priorities and a narrative on AI that benefits the supporters of FLI by treating a lot of questionable ideas as given.” It is not a luxury that all of us have to ignore current problems.

Latest news about Max Tegmark

• Professor Richard Sutton, a researcher at DeepMind, has emphasized the importance of addressing ethical and existential questions posed by AI advancement. He presented the Alberta Plan, a blueprint for AI’s future, highlighting the need for a prudent and thoughtful plan for the transfer of stewardship to AI heirs. Despite facing skepticism from the media, Sutton’s message remains undiminished, emphasizing the need for foresight and wisdom in the face of AI’s transformative power.
• Marieke Flement, a computer engineer and former LVMH financial analyst, is the CEO of NEAR Foundation. She has a diverse career, including roles at Expedia, Circle, and the crypto industry. Flement is leading the organization towards an “open web” future, focusing on making web3 more accessible to the masses. The NEAR Foundation has launched initiatives like the Blockchain Operating System and a Base Camp Accelerator Program.

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