With a financial injection of around 500 million euros, supported by well-known donors such as Bosch, Schwarz and SAP, Aleph Alpha has made a name for itself in the tech world. But behind the gloss of the investments lies a controversial debate about the ethical limits of AI and its “Luminous” language model.
Luminous and its problematic answers
Aleph Alpha's Luminous language model recently caused a stir when it generated problematic statements in a public test environment (Playground). Among other things, Muslims and women were portrayed negatively, and the model even provided positive arguments for Hitler and National Socialism.
confirmed by several media companies ( Zeit , Tagesspiegel , Golem
European values versus controversial AI answers
Aleph Alpha emphasized developing an AI with “European values,” but this claim appears to be at odds with the Luminous model’s problematic answers. The use of the term “sovereign AI” instead of “European values” on the company’s website and the adjustment of the filters indicate a continuous engagement with ethical and cultural challenges in the development of AI.
Aleph Alpha's focus: Services beyond end users
Despite the controversy, Aleph Alpha emphasizes that its focus is on providing services to companies and organizations rather than end users. An example of this is a virtual assistant that supports the administration in Baden-Württemberg in creating templates and searching for documents.
Learning models and challenges of AI
The problem with Luminous highlights a fundamental problem with language models: They generate answers based on huge amounts of data and must provide socially acceptable answers without spreading hate or misinformation. This presents an ongoing challenge for AI developers, including the need to constantly improve and adapt filters.
Conclusion: Ethics and progress in AI development
The controversy surrounding Aleph Alpha's Luminous model makes it clear that developing AI language models is not only a technical challenge, but also an ethical one. While AI models have the potential to revolutionize our everyday lives, they must adhere to ethical and societal norms to maintain trust in the technology and drive innovation.
Source: Standard
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