Stop overhyping AI, scientists tell von der Leyen

A group of scientists has called on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to retract a statement she made earlier this year when she suggested artificial intelligence would soon reach parity with human intelligence.

“We thought AI would only approach human reasoning around 2050,” von der Leyen said at the annual EU budget conference in May. “Now we expect this to happen already next year.”

In an open letter addressed to von der Leyen on Monday, more than 70 scientists call out the EU’s president for hyping AI, including two members of the UN’s high-level advisory body on AI.

Following a request from the group of scientists, the Commission disclosed that von der Leyen’s claim of impending human-parity AI was based on “the professional knowledge of Commission services, and desk review of scientific literature”.

As references, the EU’s executive pointed to several statements from professionals – including the prominent AI academic Yoshua Bengio and the CEOs of AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as the chief exec of AI chipmaker Nvidia.

“These are marketing statements driven by profit-motive and ideology rather than empirical evidence and formal proof,” the scientists write in the letter.

By repeating the AI industry’s marketing von der Leyen is undermining Europe’s credibility, they argue.

“The scientific development of any potentially useful AI is not served by amplifying the unscientific marketing claims of US tech firms,” the letter adds.

The two UN advisors among the signatories are Abeba Birhane and Virginia Dignum. Luc Steels, a prominent Belgian AI researcher, also put his name to the letter.

“We are not predicting human-level AI next year,” a Commission spokesperson told Euractiv in response to the scientists’ open letter, arguing that AI is developing faster and less predictably than older forecasts had suggested.

“This is about being prepared, not declaring a date,” they added. “Responsible planning is not guessing the future, it’s preparing for different scenarios.”

(nl)

UPDATE: Updated at 10:39 on 11 November to include comment from the Commission