Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth says Elon Musk's call to pause AI development is 'unrealistic'

• More than 1,000 people, including Elon Musk, recently signed a letter calling for a pause on AI development.
• Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said: "Not only is it unrealistic, I don't think it would be effective."

Meta's chief technology officer says a recent open letter demanding a pause on advanced AI development is "unrealistic."

Andrew Bosworth spoke out against the letter in an interview with Nikkei Asia published Wednesday.

"I think it's very important to invest in responsible development," Bosworth told the outlet, "and we do that kind of investment all the time. However, it's very hard to stop progress and make the right decisions on what changes you would make."

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He continued: "Very often you have to understand how technology evolves before you can know how to protect and make it safe. And so I think, not only is it unrealistic, I don't think it would be effective."

The letter, from the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, has garnered more than 1,000 signatures, including from AI experts and Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, the company that created AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Issued by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, the letter warns of "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."

Bosworth, who's known as "Boz," isn't the only influential figure to criticize the letter. Bill Gates also said the letter's demands wouldn't be effective, telling Reuters this week, "I don't think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges."

Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said he's opposed to pressing pause on AI because "we can't trust what our enemies will do with AI if they get there first."

"Shutting down AI development for six months gives the bad guys six more months to catch up," he said.