The creators of ChatGPT, a powerful AI system, believe that the technology could surpass humanity in most domains within the next 10 years. Cofounders of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, including CEO Sam Altman, wrote in a blogpost that it was possible AI could exceed humans in terms of professional skill and even “carry out as much productive activity as one of today’s largest corporations.” By comparison, the technology of today has the potential to be much more powerful than anything we’ve had to work with before, and OpenAI executives warned that AI could pose an “existential risk” if precautions are not taken early on.
Due to rising concerns about the power of AI, Altman made an appearance before Congress last week to discuss the lack of regulation in the development of AI. OpenAI suggested setting up an organization like the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that AI is properly monitored and has safety compliance tests in place.
In regards to the company mentioned in the article, OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever. It’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is beneficial to humanity, promoting the idea that advances in AGI should be shared publicly instead of developing technology that is proprietary and held within private companies.
The person mentioned in the article, Sam Altman, is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor who is currently the President of Y Combinator. He founded Viaweb, a company which allowed regular users to create their own online stores, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998. Altman is widely known for his role in the development of several tech companies, including Reddit, Codecademy, and Mailbox, and for his hands-on approach to growing startups in Y Combinator’s incubator program.
