The movement to put the brakes on generative A.I. gains steam

More than 1,300 people have signed an open letter published yesterday urging companies to take a six-month pause before A.I. systems become more powerful than OpenAI’s newly-released GPT-4. Signatories included Elon Musk, who cofounded OpenAI and was its largest initial donor; Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak; Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaque; Connor Leahy, the CEO of A.I. lab Conjecture; and the deep learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, who is a Turing Award–winning computer scientist. There were also a handful of people who said they hailed from Google and Microsoft, which have both rolled out new A.I.-powered search engine assistants in recent weeks (both of which I have been using).

The message was clear: “A.I. systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity,” going so far as to say that advanced A.I. “could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.” Sufficient planning and management is not happening, the signatories argue.

Concerns over responsible A.I. usage have compounded as companies including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Twitter have laid off members of their responsible A.I. teams during recent cuts, as was reported by the Financial Times. While impacted employees are a small handful relative to the broader cuts happening across the tech industry, they are taking place at a rather inopportune time.

Generative A.I. tools are now widely being used by the masses—ever since OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT into the world last fall. Microsoft and Google have only just released their respective search engine chatbots (OpenAI-powered Bing and Bard, respectively) to the public, unleashing brand-new, very powerful, consumer-facing technology and sparking substantial critique over how these bots are spinning conspiracy theories or spewing misinformation.

Now, as A.I.-generated, fake images of Trump getting arrested or of the Pope wearing a puffer jacket, are going viral, it is raising questions over misinformation becoming much more rampant. But critics take things a step further: Should artificial intelligence surpass that of human intelligence, it could be dangerous for the future of democracy and society. As OpenAI CEO Sam Altman now-infamously said at a venture capital event earlier this year: “I think the worst case is lights-out for all of us.” (No one from OpenAI has signed the letter, although new signatures are still being vetted.)

If signatories have their way, further development of machine models can wait another six months while A.I. labs and policymakers jointly develop a set of safety protocols and work to accelerate the development of things like regulatory authorities dedicated to A.I., auditing and certification, provenance and watermarking systems to “help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks.” 

A six-month pause may not be a realistic ask for companies that have deployed billions of dollars into their models and are plunging headfirst into improving them. But plenty of people think it’s absolutely necessary.

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Coursedog, a New York-based academic operations platform for higher education, raised $90 million in funding from JMI Equity. 

- Hygraph, a Berlin-based content platform, raised $30 million in Series B funding. One Peak led the round and was joined by OpenOcean, Peak, SquareOne, and other angels. 

- LeapXpert, a New York-based business communication company, raised $22 million in Series A+ funding. Rockefeller Asset Management led the round and was joined by Uncorrelated Ventures, the Partnership Fund for New York City, and others. 

- Inato, a Guildford, Conn.- and Paris-based clinical trial platform, raised $20 million in Series A2 funding. Cathay Innovation led the round and was joined by Obvious Ventures, La Maison, and Top Harvest Capital.

- Gen Phoenix, a Peterborough, England-based sustainable recycled leather company, raised $18 million in funding. Material Impact led the round and was joined by Dr. Martens, InMotion Ventures, and Tapestry.

- Dragonfly, a San Francisco- and Tel Aviv-based memory data store company, raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Quiet Capital.

- EDITED, a London-based retail analytics platform, raised $15 million in funding. Delta-v Capital led the round and was joined by Wavecrest Growth Partners, Beringea, Hermes GPE.

- Irrigreen, an Edina, Minn.-based robotic irrigation systems company, raised $15 million in seed funding. Ulu Ventures led the round and was joined by Sage Hill Investors, Burnt Island Ventures, MFV Partners, Anorak Ventures, Echo River Capital, Tamiami, Catalyst Innovation Lab, and Sum Ventures. 

- Genialis, a Boston-based computational precision medicine company, raised $13.4 million in Series A funding. Taiwania Capital and Debiopharm Innovation Fund co-led the round and were joined by First Star Ventures, Redalpine Venture Partners, Pikas, P5 Health Ventures, and other angels. 

- Spera, a Palo Alto-based cybersecurity company, raised $10 million in seed funding led by YL Ventures. 

- Stratyfy, a New York-based machine learning solutions provider, raised $10 million in funding. Truist Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners co-led the round and were joined by Mendon Venture Partners, The 98, FIS, and entrepreneur Barry J. Glick.

- Total Network Services, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based device verification and digital asset provenance platform, raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Deal Box Ventures.

- Jigso, a Tel Aviv-based A.I. observability platform for businesses, raised $7.5 million in seed funding co-led by General Catalyst, Entree Capital, and Jibe Ventures.

- Markerr, a New York-based analytics platform for institutional owners and real estate operators, raised $6.6 million in Series B funding. RET Ventures led the round and was joined by Pretium. 

- Dashbot, a San Francisco-based conversational A.I. analytics company, raised $6 million in Series A funding from Florida Funders and Bessemer Venture Partners.

- Impact Observatory, a Washington, D.C.-based mapping and monitoring company, raised $5.98 million in seed funding from Esri International and others.

- Pacto, a Mexico City-based point-of-sale software and payments company, raised $4 million in seed funding. DILA Capital led the round and was joined by FEMSA Ventures, 500 Global, August Hill, Polymath Ventures, Grupo Fame, Georgetown Angel Investor Network, and other angels.

- Sarna, a Chicago-based trading and investing platform, raised $1.58 million in seed funding. Simplex Ventures led the round and was joined by Wedbush Financial Services, Wedbush Ventures, and other angels.

- Flowla, a London-based buyer experience platform, raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. Antler, Fuel Ventures, ScaleX Ventures, and Logo Ventures invested in the round.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Accel-KKR acquired a majority stake in Loftware, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based barcode labeling software provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- DoseSpot, a PSG portfolio company, acquired the TreatRX unit of Bravado Health, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based health care provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Orangewood Partners acquired a minority stake in DLA, a Fairfield, N.J.-based internal audit and accounting advisory firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Prometheus Group, backed by Genstar Capital, acquired Atonix Digital, an Overland Park, Kans.-based data analytics platform for asset management. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Right Time Group of Companies, a Gryphon Investors portfolio company, acquired Oosterveld Heating and Air Conditioning, a Guelph, Canada-based residential HVAC contractor. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Wealth Enhancement Group acquired Equius Partners, a Novato, Calif.-based investment advisory firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

EXITS

- EQT Infrastructure agreed to acquire Lazer Logistics, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based yard management and facility logistics services, from Harvest Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.

OTHER

- SAI MedPartners acquired PharmaForce International, a Reading, Pa.-based market intelligence firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Zenus Bank acquired Financial Urban Exchange, a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based payments platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

PEOPLE

- Advent International, a Boston-based private equity firm, hired James Mullen as an operating partner.