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On March 30, a grand jury in New York indicted former President Donald Trump and instructed him to appear in court on April 4. Two weeks previously, I read digital comments in a small town weekly newspaper in Louisiana. There were photos showing Trump chased by police and pulled to the ground long before he was indicted.
I later learned that Eliot Higgins, founder and creative director of the investigative group Bellingcat, posted these fake images on Twitter, which were published all over the country. Higgins said he created them on an artificial intelligence image generator.
Truth is imperative in a democracy. AI applications spew out fake words and images in milliseconds. Social media picks them up, and suddenly parents, voters, leaders, clergy, students and governments around the world are convinced they are fact. Should we let machines flood our information channels with untruth?
On March 22, the Future of Life Institute, made up of experts in the field of artificial intelligence, “called for all AI labs to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least 6 months.” Thousands of our nation’s top researchers, entrepreneurs and analysts signed up supporting this action.
A pause would give Congress time to have hearings and to create a national agency of individuals skilled in all aspects of AI to provide smart and ethical recommendations for enforceable regulation.
This is a request to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King to engage Congress in calling for an immediate pause in the training of powerful AI systems by labs.
Carole Beal
Blue Hill
