When Mira Murati joined OpenAI in 2018, the San Francisco lab had already built a reputable presence as a research lab in the artificial intelligence industry – but had yet to become a household name. However, since her entry, OpenAI had plenty of transformations up its sleeves, with the ChatGPT product turning heads worldwide. Now, as the Chief Technology Officer of the lab, Murati heads its research, product, and safety teams and has successfully launched a variety of AI models, including ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GPT-4.
Murati sat down for an interview with The Associated Press, discussing OpenAI’s mission on artificial general intelligence, safety measures that the lab takes to develop such systems, the petition urging a six-month industry pause on developing the AI models more powerful than GPT-4, and OpenAI’s transformation since her joining.
In Murati’s words, artificial general intelligence pertains to highly autonomous systems that can produce economic output, and OpenAI’s specific vision is to “build it safely and figure out how to build it in a way that’s aligned with human intentions, so that the AI systems are doing the things that we want them to do, and that it benefit as many people out there as possible, ideally everyone.” To achieve this, Murati identified several stages that require safety and alignment measures, ranging from redacting certain data points to incorporating feedback from human users on what behavior should be amplified and de-amplified. Murati asserts that it is crucial for governments and regulatory bodies to become involved in the process, and that letter petitions are not necessarily the best way to develop safety standards.
Since Murati’s joining, OpenAI has shifted from a non-profit to a capped-profit structure as a way to maintain its mission while funding the expensive systems necessary to develop AI models. Murati reports that the team at OpenAI have been intensively researching and talking about AI risks since her joining, and she hopes that OpenAI can serve as an example to other organizations.
OpenAI is a non-profit research lab based in San Francisco, California that works on artificial intelligence. Founded in 2015, OpenAI is one of the industry leaders in AI research, with numerous bestselling products and industry collaborations. OpenAI has been home to some of the most influential figures in the industry – such as Sam Altman, Nissan Amici, Greg Brockman, and of course, Mira Murati – who has been actively shaping OpenAI’s mission as its CTO since 2018. Her involvement has helped OpenAI turn its vision of artificial general intelligence into reality and has enabled the lab to become a crucial part of the innovation engine in the AI industry.
