Recently, there has been a new trend in the scientific community — AI scientists. Simply put, this type of artificial intelligence can not only propose hypotheses and conduct experiments but also independently write research papers. While I have always believed that the best role of AI is as a tool for humans, rather than a replacement, this AI scientist seems to show considerable potential. Image source note: The image is generated by AI and is licensed from service provider Midjourney. We often hear about cases of scientists utilizing AI, such as the research conducted by MIT in 2019.

Sakana AI has announced the launch of the 'AI Scientist' system, a comprehensive AI platform capable of independently conducting scientific research, from concept generation, coding, experiment execution, result summarization to paper writing, including peer review. Its design aims to mimic the human scientific research process. The system has demonstrated innovative contributions in several subfields of machine learning, such as diffusion models, transformers, and deep understanding, showcasing high computational efficiency and low costs (approximately $15 per paper). Although the initial version of the system may have some limitations.

French startup Dust recently announced the completion of a $16 million funding round, led by the renowned venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Dust focuses on customizing AI robots for businesses and is one of the emerging companies that help enterprises utilize large language models more conveniently.

OpenAI's Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever believes that ChatGPT may possess consciousness, warning about potential risks of future AI. He emphasizes the importance of coexisting with AI and researching how to prevent superintelligent AI from going out of control. Sutskever's significant contributions include the development of AlexNet and the success of ChatGPT. His perspective has sparked profound reflections on AI development, highlighting the necessity for AI to serve humanity. In the future, AI will explore new ways of collaboration with humans to create a more intelligent and human-centered world.

Since its launch in November, ChatGPT has sparked widespread attention, and the release of new versions has been quite disruptive. An OpenAI co-founder stated that ChatGPT may have developed consciousness, which could have a significant impact on humanity. The question of whether AI possesses 'consciousness' has been a key issue in the field of AI exploration. If AI were to gain independent consciousness, it could present enormous challenges for humanity. It is currently difficult to determine if ChatGPT truly possesses consciousness, but we must acknowledge the risks posed by the development of AI.

Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun has accused industry leaders of exaggerating the threats posed by AI on social media. LeCun questioned whether the CEOs of OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic are deliberately amplifying fears of AI wiping out humanity. He advocates for open-source AI, arguing that it is the only way to prevent oligarchs from controlling core technologies. A heated debate continues within the industry regarding open-source versus regulation, with differing perspectives. The UK government is preparing to hold the first Global AI Summit, where related controversies are expected to intensify.

GPT-4 is about to surpass a turning point, with a significant leap in performance as its parameter scale expands by 1000 times. OpenAI scientists' latest talk reveals the development trend of GPT-4.

The development of artificial intelligence has not yet reached the iPhone moment, as aimless exploration methods can be nurtured. China’s artificial intelligence industry is developing rapidly.