THIS moment for artificial intelligence is unlike any that has come before. Powerful language-based AIs have lurched forward in ability and can now produce reams of plausible prose that often can’t be distinguished from text written by humans. They can answer tricky technical questions, such as those posed to lawyers and computer programmers. They can even help better train other AIs.
However, they have also raised serious concerns. Prominent AI researchers and tech industry leaders have called for research labs to pause the largest ongoing experiments in AI for at least six months in order to allow …