Why is Silicon Valley rallying against ChatGPT-like AI products? And what is the Hindi imposition row over curd in South India?

Market Watch

The markets were closed today on account of Ram Navami.

Tech leaders are calling for a six-month pause on training more powerful AI systems

Billionaire Elon Musk, along with a group of artificial intelligence experts, is calling for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAI's ChatGPT over fears of the potential risk to humanity.

• Here’s an extract from the letter which was issued by the non-profit Future of Life Institute - mainly funded by the Musk Foundation, Founders Pledge, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation:

Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.

• Notable signatories of the letter include Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and AI heavyweights Yoshua Bengio, among others.
• No one from Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google-backed Anthropic, who has created a “safer” AI chatbot, has signed the letter.

What they're saying: They have called for a shared safety protocol that needs to be audited and overseen by independent experts.

• “These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt. This does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities,” the letter reads.
• They also urged AI developers to work with policymakers and regulatory authorities as they believe these AI systems pose a risk to society in the form of economic and political disruptions.

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking to the Wall Street Journal clarified that OpenAI prioritizes safety. “In some sense, this is preaching to the choir. We have, I think, been talking about these issues the loudest, with the most intensity, for the longest.”

• On Elon Musk he said, “Elon is obviously attacking us some on Twitter right now on a few different vectors, and I have empathy because I believe he is — understandably so — really stressed about AGI safety. I’m sure there are some other motivations going on too, but that’s definitely one of them.”
• “I definitely grew up with Elon as a hero of mine. You know, despite him being a jerk on Twitter or whatever, I’m happy he exists in the world. But I wish he would do more to look at the hard work we’re doing to get this stuff right,” he concluded.

Move to rename curd 'dahi' leaves a sour taste in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka

The Food Safety and Standard Authority of India’s (FSSAI) directive to rename curd packets as “dahi” sparked outrage in southern states and was labelled as an imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states.

The details: The FSSAI issued a directive to the federation of milk producers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, instructing them to change the label of their curd packets from “curd” (English) and “thayir” (Tamil) to “dahi” (Hindi).?

• Similar directives have been issued for butter and cheese as well.
• Milk federations in the two states have written to the FSSAI requesting them to continue using their local languages for the packaging, arguing that curd is a generic term whereas “dahi” is a specific product differing in taste and texture.?
• Following the backlash, the regulator revised its order. It will now allow for the product to be labelled “based on the regional nomenclature used in different states”.

The response: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin termed the move “unabashed Hindi imposition” and criticised the disregard of the regional languages of southern states, as per Indian Express.

• Milk and dairy minister S M Nasar stated that the directive will not be implemented in the state and that curd packets will continue to be labelled in the regional language, notes India Today.?
• Karnataka JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy also slammed the FSSAI for Hindi imposition, per The Indian Express.?

ICYMI

• Essential drugs are set to get costlier by over 12% from April 1—in what would be the highest-ever annual hike.
• Meta has opened the waiting list for Meta Verified for Facebook and Instagram in India and it will cost Rs 1,450 per month on mobile devices and Rs 1,099 a month for web access.
• One of the RBI’s most outspoken former deputy governors - Viral Acharya - has argued in a research paper that India needs to dismantle its ‘big 5’ conglomerates - Reliance Group, Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Adani Group and Bharti Telecom.
• Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group plans to split itself into six different companies that will seek separate IPOs.
• The Delhi government has issued a mask advisory after a spike in the Covid-19 positivity rate (13.89%) and an increase in the number of cases in the capital.
• Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, has been admitted to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome due to a respiratory infection.
• The 2022 Red Seer report on the Top 25 Digital Disruptors in India has ranked 75 digital disruptors (the top 25 in each category) that currently generate $15 billion in sales online.