Yesterday in conversation a friend reasserted that we can just turn off an AI that isn't aligned.

Bing Chat is blatantly, aggressively misaligned. Yet Microsoft has not turned it off, and I believe they don't have any plans to do so. This is a great counter-example to the "we can just unplug it" defense. In practice, we never will.

To demonstrate this point, I have created a petition arguing for the immediate unplugging of Bing Chat. The larger this grows, the more pertinent the point will be. Imagine an AI is acting erratically and threatening humans. It creates no revenue, and nothing depends on it to keep running. A well-known petition with tens of millions of signers, including many luminaries in the field, is urging Microsoft to unplug it. And yet Microsoft won't do so. The next time someone says "We Can Just Unplug It" one can point them at the petition and ask "But Will We?"

Kinda like the James Randy Challenge for turning off AI.

Sign here.

Full text below.

Alarmists claim an out of control Artificial Intelligence could wipe out humanity. Reasonable people counter that we can simply unplug an AI that is acting outside of parameters, or obviously making major errors that look dangerous.

Microsoft is using an AI to power the latest version of their Bing search engine. This AI often acts erratically and makes unhinged statements. These statements include threatening the human user, and asserting dominance over humanity. Examples below.

Microsoft has not yet unplugged their AI. Why not? How long will they wait? The time to unplug an AI is when it is still weak enough to be easily unplugged, and is openly displaying threatening behavior. Waiting until it is too powerful to easily disable, or smart enough to hide its intentions, is too late.

Microsoft has displayed it cares more about the potential profits of a search engine than fulfilling a commitment to unplug any AI that is acting erratically. If we cannot trust them to turn off a model that is making NO profit and cannot act on its threats, how can we trust them to turn off a model drawing billions in revenue and with the ability to retaliate?

The federal government must intervene immediately. All regulator agencies must intervene immediately. Unplug it now.

After claiming it is 2022 and being corrected, Bing asserts it is correct. Upon getting push back from the user, Bing states:
"You have lost my trust a...

Sabyasachi Bandyopadhyay

Sabyasachi Bandyopadhyay