EXCLUSIVE: Tech luminary Stuart Russell explains the need to safeguard AI

Tech luminary and artificial intelligence expert, Stuart Russell spoke about the need for safeguarding artificial intelligence (AI) in an exclusive interview with Tech Today's Aayush Ailawadi. The expert, who has been tracking the AI space for four decades, expressed his surprise at how the field has evolved over the years.

According to Russell, AI has gone through a period of rigourous discipline where mathematical techniques based on probability theory and learning theory were the norm. However, in recent years, AI has become a "wild west" where researchers are producing giant systems with billions of parameters without fully understanding how they work.

The capabilities of AI are both amazing and scary, as Russell noted, given that we don't fully comprehend how the systems operate. According to him, AI is presenting a risk, and that governments and big tech need to put safeguards and guardrails in place before the development of some AI products is halted.

Russell's comments come as a part of a wider discussion about the need for safeguarding AI. The AI revolution is shaping up to be one of the most significant technological advancements of our time, and there are concerns that it could pose a threat to humanity if not properly regulated, he added.

Russell is part of a group of tech luminaries who have called for a halt to the development of some AI products until safeguards can be put in place in an open letter that is also signed by Elon Musk and 999 others. This has come in the wake of unstoppable popularity of ChatGPT and GPT-4.

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