The Manx government’s Office for Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA), is keeping a close eye on developments in artificial intelligence.

It comes as tech bosses Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause in the training of artificial intelligence systems more powerful than ChatGPT-4.

The letter was published shortly after the launch of the newest version of ChatGPT, a chatbot that its creators, OpenAI, have recently bragged can score in the top 10% of the bar exam.

The letter said that commensurate planning needs to take place before these systems continue to be developed, because of the ‘profound risks to society and humanity’.

It stated: ‘AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?

‘Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones?

‘Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?

‘Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.’

It said that the necessary planning has not taken place ‘even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one, not even their creators, can understand, predict, or reliably control’.

Alan Chambers, government cyber and information security officer in the island, said: ‘From an OCSIA perspective we keep a watching eye on all developments and advances in the “cyber” sector and this includes such matters as AI, machine learning and even quantum computing.’

‘AI will no doubt be embraced by the global economies and for the island to keep pace we will need to follow suit.

‘The way it is embraced and used will determine as to whether or not regulation will need to be amended or introduced to ensure it is used in an ethically accepted manner.

‘Our concerns, as always will be that for any advancement in technology for the better someone somewhere will develop a way to subvert it or use it for illicit purposes.

‘It is impossible to plan for the unknown as it currently stands. AI is expected to have its initial lift through academia, closely followed by industry and finance so we will watch developments with interest.

‘Regulation and management will really only follow when the use case is understood and with that any risks.

‘Given the widespread applications for AI, legislation may already exist and its application will depend entirely on the context AI is used.

‘The rapid pace of change in technology/cyber only highlights the need for flexible and effective education, skills adoption and appropriate legal frameworks.

‘As a small island state we will be obliged to adopt certain elements or lose pace with the rest of the world.’