Meta Platforms Inc.'s META chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, has been vocal about keeping artificial intelligence (AI) technology developments open source, and he has now explained why he thinks it will not be misused.
What Happened: In an interview with Wired, LeCun outlined his thoughts about the importance of making sure AI developments are open source.
According to LeCun, open platforms help speed up development and also ensure that they are more secure.
"When you have an open platform that a lot of people can contribute to, progress becomes faster. The systems you end up with are more secure and perform better," LeCun said.
LeCun also thinks that the vast diversity of cultures, languages, and people worldwide necessitates open-source AI. He thinks decisions made by a select few people in the U.S. regarding AI development might not consider the needs of people elsewhere in the world.
"AI has to be open source because we need a common infrastructure when a platform is becoming an essential part of the fabric of communication," he said.
But what about the possibility of malicious parties, or even terrorists, abusing open-source AI and wreaking havoc on the rest of the world?
LeCun thinks that there are several reasons for him not to worry about this possibility.
"They would need access to 2,000 GPUs somewhere that nobody can detect, enough money to fund it, and enough talent to actually do the job," he quipped.
However, there remains a possibility of state-backed actors misusing AI, but LeCun thinks it's impossible to prevent the "bad guys" from accessing technology anyway.
Why It Matters: LeCun has propelled making AI open source. Meta's Llama 2 large-language model is an example of this – the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has open-sourced the entire model.
In the past, too, LeCun has been public about his views on open-source AI. He once asked his followers if open source could have prevented SkyNet in Terminator from taking over the world.
He even called out fellow godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, when he compared open-source AI to nuclear weapons.
“AI is designed to make humanity smarter, not wipe out entire cities. I fail to see how this analogy has any relevance,” he retorted.
Image Credits – Shutterstock
Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
