Agreed. If the risks were real they would just outright stop working on their AI products. This is nothing more than a PR statement
This statement contains a bunch of hidden assumptions:
1. That they believe their stopping will address the problem. 2. That they believe the only choice is whether or not to stop. 3. That they don't think it's possible to make AI safe through sufficient regulation. 4. That they don't see benefits to pursuing AI that could outweigh risks.
If they believe any of these things, then they could believe the risks were real and also not believe that stopping was the right answer.
And it doesn't depend on whether any of these beliefs are true: it's sufficient for them to simply believe one of them and the assumptions your statement depends on break down.
Because it only works if it is done across the whole country, as a system not as one individual unilaterally stopping.
And here any of these efforts won’t work unless there is international cooperation. If other countries can develop the AI weapons, and get an advantage, then you will also.
We need to apply the same thinking as chemical weapons or the Montreal Conference for banning CFCs
It is extremely rare for companies or their senior staff to beg for regulation this far in advance of any big push by legislators or the public.
The interpretation that this is some 3-D chess on the companies' part is a huge violation of Occam's Razor.
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I think the primary risk these folks are worried about is loss of control. And in turn, that's because they're all people for whom the system has more-or-less worked.
Poor people are worried the risk that the rich will keep the economic windfall to themselves and not share it.
With AGI existential risk, its likely to happen on a much shorter timescale, and it seems likely you won't be able to buy your way out of it.
AI is an existential threat to search engines like Google, social media (FB, Twitter), advertising networks, and other massive multinationals. Many other industries, including academia is threatened as well. They’d all rather strangle the AI baby in the crib now then let it grow up and threaten them.
They believe the only way it should be allowed to grow is under their benevolent control.
But the abilities of the latest crop of LLMs changed his mind. And he very publicly admitted he had been wrong, which should be applauded, even if you think it took him far too long.
By quitting and saying it was because of his worries he sent a strong message. I agree it is unlikely he'll make any contributions to technical alignment, but just having such an eminent figure publicly take these issues seriously can have a strong impact.