OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently addressed the open letter calling for a pause on artificial intelligence (AI) development. Speaking at MIT, Altman said that while safety is important to OpenAI, the letter “lacked technical nuance”. The letter was signed by notable tech leaders such as Elon Musk and called for a six-month moratorium on AI development that is more advanced than OpenAI’s GPT-4, the latest version of the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
Altman acknowledged certain parts of the letter which he agreed with, adding that OpenAI had taken more than six months to train GPT-4 before releasing, so it is important to take the time to study the model’s safety and mitigate as much risk as possible. Despite Altman’s agreement to the points laid out in the letter, he noted that it falsey claimed that OpenAI was currently training GPT-5.
The letter has been met with criticism and support, with some calling it “impractical and nearly impossible to enforce without government involvement” and others thinking Musk’s signature was jealousy, as he left OpenAI in 2018. In addition, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, stated that Musk and others are likely trying to catch up on AI developments in order to offer their own AI products.
Altman believes that due to the major effects that AI can have, it is important for as many people as possible to be involved in testing and learning about them. He believes it is important to engage everyone in the discussion of AI, even if the systems that are released are not perfect.
OpenAI is a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research laboratory that was co-founded by Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever in late 2015. The company was partly funded by Elon Musk and has created numerous AI technology products as well as research efforts.
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, an AI research laboratory based in San Francisco. Altman was part of the original founders in 2015, along with Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever. Altman is a well-known name in the technology industry, having held executive roles in multiple tech companies and investment firms. He is also an angel investor, having invested in various popular companies such as Airbnb, Checkr, and Scoop. In addition, he is a partner at startup incubator Y Combinator, and he is also the president of Y Combinator’s nonprofit arm, OpenAI.
