OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot, has announced that they are not developing the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, GPT-5, in response to an open letter signed by founder Elon Musk, Andrew Yang and many other AI researchers. CEO Sam Altman said at an MIT event on Thursday that OpenAI had no plans to work on GPT-5 any time soon, and that the letter from Musk was “missing most technical nuance about where we need the pause.”
The letter urged for a six-month moratorium on all training for AI models more powerful than GPT-4 due to the unknown consequences of such powerful AI. However, several members of the AI development industry criticized the letter for misrepresenting the issues and for having fake signatures. The Pentagon’s top cyber warfare officer also dismissed Musk’s call to suspend training, noting the potential for adversaries to exploit AI progress.
Altman further mentioned that OpenAI is working on other projects related to GPT-4 that involve safety concerns and were not mentioned in the letter. He suggested that while they are aware of the risk associated with AI development, they need to take a closer look at the issues with more technical nuance.
OpenAI is a research laboratory established by Elon Musk and other tech-industry heavyweights such as former Y Combinator president Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever. The organization focuses on creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can be used to benefit humanity in areas such as health, economics, and science. Their products have been used in a variety of applications, such as medical diagnosis, e-commerce, and natural language processing, and have even been used by NASA to develop robots.
Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., an electric car company, and a renewable energy storage, producer, and installer. He also founded SpaceX, a commercial space exploration and transportation company and was the first private person to pay for a trip to outer space. Musk has always been passionate about AI, and in 2020, he co-founded OpenAI to drive their mission for artificial general intelligence. He has been a vocal critic of “runaway” AI technology and its potential dangers, signing on to the open letter calling for a moratorium on AI technologies more powerful than GPT-4.
