OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the heated debate over the open letter from tech leaders such as Elon Musk, calling for a pause on AI development. Speaking at MIT, Altman said OpenAI takes safety very seriously, and that the letter “lacked technical nuance.”
The letter, which asked for a six-month pause on development of AI models “more advanced” than OpenAI’s GPT-4 chatbot, has been met with varied responses. Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have noted that such a pause is impractical without government involvement. However, OpenAI’s cofounder Greg Brockman among others have vocalized their support for the pause.
In one of his only public comments on the letter, Altman suggested that a pause on AI development was not only reasonable—but necessary. He stated that OpenAI spent more than six months after they finished training GPT-4 before they released it, to ensure safety. Altman stated that as AI capabilities become more serious, “the safety bar’s gotta increase.”
Beyond this, Altman noted that the letter suggested GPT-5 was already in development, though OpenAI has already denied this. Altman went on to say that OpenAI is developing additions to GPT-4 that come with their own safety concerns. He encouraged “putting these systems out into the world” to ensure people have a chance to understand the pros and cons of AI.
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research lab founded in 2015. They are best known for their work on Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 and 4 models, which allow for natural language processing (NLP) applications. The company, which counts Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman as founders, has grown to over 200 employees.
Sam Altman is the CEO at OpenAI, with a background in programming and entrepreneurship. He is a Co-Chairman at Y-Combinator, and has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Reddit and Stripe. Altman is an advocate for the responsible and ethical use of AI, and regularly speaks on its potential impacts.
