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"Potential risks" of GPT-5 will have no effect on the development of China's own large language model being developed, Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Security Technology said on Thursday.

Zhou's remarks came after that Elon Musk, Tesla's founder, and a group of artificial intelligence (AI) experts called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4, citing its potential risks to human society.

Zhou said that a number of Chinese companies including 360 Security Technology, have already displayed relevant work on the development and realistically speaking, they should take about two years to reach GPT-4 levels. "It's too early to worry about the risks," Zhou said.

Zhou said that GPT is set to lead a new industrial revolution with significance beyond the invention of the Internet. It will bring about a dramatic increase in productivity, which in turn will enhance nation's competitiveness, so China must catch up, he said.

Regarding Musk's open letter, Zhou noted that something beyond human imagination has occurred on the evolutionary path of the GPT.

"Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? ... Should we develop non-human minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?" the open letter asked.

However, Zhou said the evolution of AI is no longer subject to individual will. "I myself am in the security business, but I firmly believe that the greatest risk to security is the lack of development," he noted.

"GPT is the greatest tool of this era. We can use its ability to dramatically increase productivity and improve the ability of individuals themselves, and ordinary people can unlock professional skills and bring their intelligence into play. Through human-computer collaboration, we will become the strongest human ever, that is to say, Homo sapiens 2.0," the tech company founder said.

Jin Xianmin, a quantum communication researcher with Shanghai Jiaotong University, expressed his opposition to the open letter.

"It should not call for a halt to the advancement of technology as human civilization should be able to move forward," Jin said, noting that technological progress should not be stopped.

China will continue to give strong support to AI as a strategic emerging industry, officials with the Ministry of Science and Technology told a press conference on February 24, pledging to further unleash the benefits in AI development as a new engine of growth.

China's Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang said that ChatGPT has become a hot topic, noting that the system has made progress in natural language understanding and processing. 

However, the question is "how to deal with it ethically, and how to promote development while taking into account the duality of scientific and technological achievements," Wang said.


Global Times