Millennial boss of OpenAI challenger says AGI predictions are driven by “very religious” ideals

In conversation with the New York TimesArthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, described the decision by tech’s biggest names to declare AI’s supremacy over humans as driven by a “very religious” fascination.

Is AGI a myth?

The proliferation of AI in such a brief time period has stunned observers and driven staggering investments in firms using the technology that is predicted to fundamentally change the way in which we work.

But it has also brought more ambitious predictions, including the introduction of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which allows AI to perform tasks in addition to or higher than humans.

In an interview on Twitter/X earlier this week, Elon Musk said that milestone is probably going just across the corner.

“I expect that probably by the end of next year we will have an AI that is smarter than any single human,” Musk told Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management.

He said that inside five years the technology can be smarter than any human being on Earth.

Musk’s predictions, particularly regarding areas through which he has financial interests, needs to be viewed with caution.

But he’s just one in all several CEOs harboring the prospect of AI superintelligence.

When asked on the World Economic Forum in January what the core competency of humans is in comparison with AI, OpenAI boss Sam Altman couldn’t discover a convincing answer.

“I admit it feels different this time. “General-purpose cognition is so close to what we all value about humanity that it actually feels different,” Altman said.

Geoffrey Hinton, a former Google worker and the so-called “Godfather of AI,” has long predicted that the technology will outsmart humans as a part of a broader doomsday scenario surrounding AI.

Even Demis Hassabis, the pinnacle of Mensch’s former employer, Google’s DeepMind, believes AGI is just a number of years away.

However, Mensch, whose startup is making waves on each side of the Atlantic, is just not convinced that AGI will change into a reality.

“All the AGI rhetoric is about creating God,” Mensch said NOW. “I don’t imagine in god. I’m a powerful atheist. So I don’t imagine in AGI.”

Mistral comes for the primary leaders

Mensch also called for regulations to be relaxed in Europe, which can explain a number of the CEO’s motivations for dismissing the more worrying potential of AI.

Although Mensch can also be less of a believer in AI’s ability to outsmart humans as a consequence of his avowed atheism, he still sees the technology fundamentally changing the way in which staff do their jobs.

In fact, he believes it will create unprecedented urgency to retrain these staff.

“It is coming faster than previous revolutions,” he said, “not in ten years, but rather in two.”

The 31-year-old was working as an engineer in Google’s DeepMind laboratory in Paris just 18 months ago.

He was inspired to found Mistral alongside co-founders and former Meta engineers Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT gave him the thought of ​​developing the same model for the French market, and “Le Chat” was soon born. .

Since Mistral’s launch, the group has been flooded with investors who imagine the platform is an actual European challenger to early leaders across the pond reminiscent of OpenAI and Google.

The group managed to boost $113 million in a seed round only a month after its founding, capitalizing on the huge AI hype that prevailed last summer.

At this point, Mistral had not yet developed its first product and had just began hiring employees.

In February, Microsoft announced a partnership with Mistral that would reduce its reliance on OpenAI.

Human told that NOW that it is just not secure to trust competitors within the US to set appropriate ground rules for the usage of AI, and that a “European champion” like Mistral must ensure a level playing field.