A hacker group has unveiled a "ChatGPT-like" personal artificial intelligence (AI) that can be installed and run on a home computer even without an internet connection.
The new AI tools come as Elon Musk, an early investor in OpenAI, warns that advances in AI are bringing us closer to a technological point of no return. Brian Roemmele, founder of tech blog Multiplex, wrote a detailed guide on how to install the personal AI "GPT4All" on April 11, calling it a "first PC" moment for personal AI. According to reports, GPT4All was developed by programmers from AI development company Nomic AI, took four days, cost only $1,300, and required only 4GB of space.
Roemmele cautions that it's not as powerful as AI firm OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, which itself is a vast improvement over its predecessor, ChatGPT-3.5, but is still a powerful tool in its own right, noting: "Are there limits? Of course. It's not ChatGPT 4, it won't get some things right. However, it's one of the most powerful personal AI systems ever built."
Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been an outspoken critic of the development of artificial intelligence, and on March 22 signed a letter published by the Future of Life Institute, a US think tank, calling on all artificial intelligence companies to "immediately suspend "Training powerful AI systems. The letter warned that "human competing intelligence could pose profound risks to society and humanity," a sentiment Musk echoed in an April 12 tweet in which he joked that "the Singularity is around the corner ".
The singularity refers to a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, possibly thanks to self-improving artificial intelligence.
While some see the technological singularity as a positive development, others believe it could be catastrophic, leading to a dystopian future - similar to that depicted in the popular Terminator sci-fi series. Roemmele takes a different view of AI, arguing in his guide that it's more appropriately called IA, or "intelligent amplification," and, in response to the push to pause, suggesting that people should "pick a side."
Roemmele claimed that "AI is rapidly becoming a target for censorship, regulation and worse," citing Italy's March 31 blockade of ChatGPT as an example, adding that "this may be the last chance to own an AI of its own."
