ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) experts and bosses of tech companies have called for a pause in the training of powerful AI systems, due to the possible risks to society and humanity.

More than 5,500 people, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Twitter boss Elon Musk (right), have signed a letter warning that AI could present huge risks to society. They reckon that it is becoming so clever it could cause political and economic disruption.

The letter says: “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.” The people who’ve signed the letter want a sixmonth pause in the development of AI systems more powerful than the recent GPT-4 update used by ChatGPT.

They say that if this doesn’t take place, governments should step in and force it to happen. The experts say the pause should be used by AI labs and independent experts to develop a set of safety rules for advanced AI design and development. They say these rules should be overseen by independent, outside experts.

The letter was published soon after the law enforcement agency of the European Union, Europol, warned about the possible misuse of advanced AI like GPT-4.

They said it could be used for crime and spreading dangerous fake news. For example, some people might use AI to create false videos or information about a political candidate, to try to influence how people vote.