OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has recently responded to an open letter spearheaded by tech luminaries such as tech mogul Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The letter proposed a 6-month halt on AI research due to concerns about the safety of artificial intelligence. While agreeing on the importance of caution and safety, Altman pointed out the lack of technical nuance in the discussion.
At an event hosted by MIT discussing AI and business, Altman explained that the open letter did not make for a practical solution. He stated that safety protocols should be rigorously audited and overseen by independent third-party experts.
Meanwhile, Twitter’s Elon Musk argued that OpenAI has shifted its focus to commercial gains, a criticism Altman refuted by explaining that Musk’s concern was arises from his worry that AI might not be safe enough. In response, Musk plans to create a “maximum truth-seeking AI” called TruthGPT, that would be an alternative to the existing ChatGPT.
OpenAI is an AI research laboratory composed of renowned scientists and engineers that dedicate their time towards advancing the field of artificial intelligence. They work on a variety of projects ranging from developing natural language processing, computer vision, and robotic systems. Founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other tech pioneers including Greg Brockman, a former engineering executive at Microsoft, OpenAI prioritized the development of general AI and thus, stayed independent of major tech giants and as of recently, took on $1 Billion in funding from Microsoft.
