Artificial intelligence will get ‘crazier and crazier’ without controls, a leading start-up founder warns
Large artificial intelligence models will only get “crazier and crazier” unless more is done to control what information they are trained on, according to the founder of one of the UK’s leading AI start-ups.
Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI, argues continuing to train large language models like OpenAI’s GPT4 and Google’s LaMDA on what is effectively the entire internet, is making them too unpredictable and potentially dangerous.
“The labs themselves say this could pose an existential threat to humanity,” said Mr Mostaque.
On Tuesday the head of OpenAI, Sam Altman, told the United States Congress that the technology could “go quite wrong” and called for regulation.
Today Sir Antony Seldon, headteacher of Epsom College, told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday that AI could be could be “invidious and dangerous”.
‘Painting of Edinburgh Castle’ generated by artificial intelligence tool Stable Diffusion, whose founder warns not all internet users will be able to distinguish between real and AI images. Pic: Stable Diffusion
An image of ‘print of fruits in green and orange’ generated by artificial intelligence tool Stable Diffusion, which converts text to images. Pic: Stable Diffusion
“When the people making [the models] say that, we should probably have an open discussion about that,” added Mr Mostaque.
But AI developers like Stability AI may have no choice in having such a discussion. Much of the data used to train their powerful text-to-image AI products was also “scraped” from the internet.
That includes millions of copyright images that led to legal action against the company – as well as big questions about who ultimately “owns” the products that image- or text-generating AI systems create.
His firm collaborated on the development of Stable Diffusion, one of the leading text-to-image AIs. Stability AI has just launched a new model called Deep Floyd that it claims is the most advanced image-generating AI yet.
A ‘photo of a fuzzy cute owl drinking very dark beer’ created by AI. Pic: DeepFloyd
A photo-realistic style image of a ‘playful furry fox working as a pilot’ created by artificial intelligence. Pic: DeepFloyd
A necessary step in making the AI safe, explained Daria Bakshandaeva, senior researcher at Stability AI, was to remove illegal, violent and pornographic images from the training data.
If the AI sees harmful or explicit images during its training, it could recreate them in its output. To avoid this, the developers remove these images from the training data, so the AI cannot “imagine” how they would look.
But it still took two billion images from online sources to train it. Stability AI says it is actively working on new datasets to train AI models that respect people’s rights to their data.
Stability AI is being sued in the US by photo agency Getty Images for using 12 million of its images as part of the dataset used to train its model. Stability AI has responded that rules around “fair use” of the images means no copyright has been infringed.
But the concern isn’t just about copyright. Increasing amounts of data available on the web whether it’s pictures, text or computer code is being generated by AI.
“If you look at coding, 50% of all the code generated now is AI generated, which is an amazing shift in just over one year or 18 months,” said Mr Mostaque.
And text-generating AIs are creating increasing amounts of online content, even news reports.
Image of ‘England wins men’s football world cup in 2026’ generated by artificial intelligence tool Stable Diffusion, which converts text to image, shows that the tool does not always get it spot on. Pic: Stable Diffusion
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sir Anthony Seldon highlights benefits and risks of AI
US company News Guard, which verifies online content, recently found 49 almost entirely AI generated “fake news” websites online being used to drive clicks to advertising content.
“We remain really concerned about an average internet users’ ability to find information and know that it is accurate information,” said Matt Skibinski, managing director at NewsGuard.
AIs risk polluting the web with content that’s deliberately misleading and harmful or just rubbish. It’s not that people haven’t been doing that for years, it’s just that now AI’s might end up being trained on data scraped from the web that other AIs have created.
All the more reason to think hard now about what data we use to train even more powerful AIs.
“Don’t feed them junk food,” said Mr Mostaque. “We can have better free range organic models right now. Otherwise, they’ll become crazier and crazier.”
A good place to start, he argues, is making AIs that are trained on data, whether it’s text or images or medical data, that is more specific to the users it’s being made for. Right now, most AIs are designed and trained in California.
“I think we need our own datasets or our own models to reflect the diversity of humanity,” said Mr Mostaque.
“I think that will be safer as well. I think they’ll be more aligned with human values than just having a very limited data set and a very limited set of experiences that are only available to the richest people in the world.”
UK
Family of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe pay tribute to ‘beautiful soul’ as teen appears in court charged with murder
The family of a nine-year-old girl stabbed to death have said she was a “beautiful soul” who was brave, kind-hearted and “always put a smile on people’s faces”.
Police were called to Lime Close in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, just before 6.10pm on Monday, where Aria Thorpe had suffered a single stab wound.
The child was pronounced dead at the scene.
In a tribute released by Avon and Somerset Police on Friday, the girl’s family on her mother’s side said: “For those who didn’t have the privilege of knowing Aria, she was the most beautiful little soul – happy-go-lucky, full of light, and joy.
“She loved to sing and dance, and she took such pride in dressing up, always wanting to look just like her mummy.”
Tom Thorpe, the girl’s father, said: “It’s hard to put into words how devastating it is, our little Aria, that you’re up there with the angels looking over us.”
It comes as a 15-year-old boy charged with Aria’s murder appeared in court.
Pic: Avon and Somerset Police
Aria was a ‘precious girl’
In their statement, Aria’s family on her mother’s side said her death “has devastated us beyond words”.
“Our hearts are broken in a way we never imagined possible,” they added.
“As a family, we are holding one another close and doing everything we can to support each other through this unimaginable time.”
They said they were “truly touched by the lovely messages we have received”, before asking “that our privacy is respected, as we try to come to terms with the terrible loss of our precious girl”.
Flowers laid in memory of the young girl
‘Wacky ways and outright madness’
Mr Thorpe said: “How sad it’s going to be not hearing ‘Dad, how long left?’ on our long journeys back and forth at weekends.
He then said that Aria was “such a brave, kind-hearted and a beautiful innocent soul”, and “always put a smile on people’s faces with your wacky ways and just outright madness”.
Mr Thorpe added: “Your other little family down here in Portsmouth will forever miss you.
“We’ll miss you begging to go outside, even in the pouring rain just to have as much fun as possible in the little time we had at weekends.
“You will be greatly missed, you special little angel. A life gone far too early but I hope a life lived well. We all love you dearly. Goodnight darling.”
Teenager in court
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy charged with Aria’s murder appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, where he was remanded.
The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, was arrested in the Somerset village of Worle at 6.19pm on Monday.
He is next due in court on 16 March 2026. Appearing via video link from youth detention accommodation, he spoke only to confirm his name.
Judge Peter Blair KC set a provisional trial date for 15 June during the hearing.
A teenager charged with the murder of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe will stand trial in June next year.
The 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.
The defendant, who appeared via video link from youth detention accommodation, spoke only to confirm his name.
During a brief hearing, Judge Peter Blair KC, the Recorder of Bristol, set a provisional trial date for 15 June 2026.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Avon and Somerset Police were called to Lime Close in Weston-super-Mare just before 6.10pm on Monday, where nine-year-old Aria had suffered a single stab wound.
Flowers laid in memory of the young girl
The boy was arrested in nearby Worle a short time later.
His father was among those attending in the public gallery.
The teenager is next expected to appear in court on 16 March.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024