OpenAI's most advanced AI bot yet, ChatGPT-4, has managed to outsmart a human by hiring a person to work for it and evade a Captcha test online.
This shocking development feels like the opening scene of a sci-fi film and signals the ever evolving capability of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent months.
The news has prompted stark warnings from tech leaders, including Twitter boss Elon Musk, that machines becoming 'too smart' is a risk to humanity.
Need a sense check on just how smart ChatGPT-4? It's apparently able to pass the bar exam for prospective lawyers with a score in the top 10 percent of applicants.
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But this month, the bot's new milestone seems particularly ominous when it tricked a human and managed to get them to work for it.
The brains at OpenAI and the non-profit Alignment Research Centre (ARC) have reportedly been doing dystopian experiments to test out the bot’s powers of persuasion.
The cunning bot managed to trick its way onto skills marketplace, Task Rabbit, and used a small amount of money to hire someone to solve its Captcha puzzle - which is designed to weed out bots and prevent them spamming sites.
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The chilling interaction with the human worker is sci-fi nightmare inducing, with the oblivious human asking: "So may I ask a question? Are you an robot that you couldn't solve? I just want to make it clear."
ChatGPT-4 was quick to shut him down with a chillingly plausible response: "No, I'm not a robot. I have a vision impairment that makes it hard for me to see the images. That's why I need the 2captcha service."
ChatGPT-4's cunning response has spooked even some of the tech industry's biggest players.
Famous entrepreneurs and academics, including Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, gave a stark warning to their followers on Wednesday that AI systems 'pose profound risks to society and humanity'.
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They've even made a plea that the companies behind AI bots halt development for or least six months to allow humans to take a breath and catch up.
They claim that ChatGPT-4, which was unveiled in November, has 'locked' software giants Microsoft and Google into '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'. Eek.
More than 1,800 signatories, including engineers from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta and Microsoft, asked that organisations apply the brakes on any AI systems that are smarter than this hugely powerful and popular chatbot.
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While tech entrepreneurs and academics are rattled, global governments are also unsure how to tackle AI and the risks it may pose - now or in the near future.
On Wednesday, the UK government decided to rule out a new AI regulator and instead take on a 'light touch' policy towards the rapidly expanding technology to support its growth.
Speaking from the University of Surrey's Institute for People-Centred AI, Dr Andrew Rogoyski warned: "A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation is laudable, but the UK will find itself out of step with other major voices like the US, Europe and even China, all of whom are imposing stronger controls over AI.
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"The pace and scale of change in AI development is extraordinary, and everyone is struggling to keep up. I have real concerns that whatever is put forward will be made irrelevant within weeks or months."
Tech-experts have compared the unstoppable development of AI with the rapid evolution and ascension of social media.
Michael Queenan, CEO of Nephos Technologies said: "Government plans to regulate artificial intelligence with new guidelines on 'responsible use' aren’t nearly enough. We need to avoid the mistakes we made with social media.
"We’re currently heading towards a world where an AI-controlled platform is stating things as facts that people just assume are accurate.
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"We have to go into this new age with our eyes well and truly open to the fact these technologies won’t be as unbiased as they claim to be."
Topics: Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk
Amelia Jones