Report: OpenAI Researchers Warned Board of AI Significant Breakthrough Ahead of CEO’s Firing
The move may have also been based out of concerns over rapid commercialization.
Last week, I reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reinstated, successfully reversing his ouster by Artificial Intelligence (AI) firm’s board last week after a campaign waged by his allies. This move concluded five days of high-stakes corporate drama that had Microsoft offering to hire Altman and most of the OpenAI staff threatening to quit.
The motivation behind the firing in the first place may be coming to light. According to a Reuters report, the move may have been based out of concerns over rapid commercialization . . . as well as a significant breakthrough in AI capabilities.
The sources cited the letter as one factor among a longer list of grievances by the board leading to Altman’s firing, among which were concerns over commercializing advances before understanding the consequences. Reuters was unable to review a copy of the letter. The staff who wrote the letter did not respond to requests for comment.
After being contacted by Reuters, OpenAI, which declined to comment, acknowledged in an internal message to staffers a project called Q* and a letter to the board before the weekend’s events, one of the people said. An OpenAI spokesperson said that the message, sent by long-time executive Mira Murati, alerted staff to certain media stories without commenting on their accuracy.
Some at OpenAI believe Q* (pronounced Q-Star) could be a breakthrough in the startup’s search for what’s known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), one of the people told Reuters. OpenAI defines AGI as autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.
…In their letter to the board, researchers flagged AI’s prowess and potential danger, the sources said without specifying the exact safety concerns noted in the letter. There has long been discussion among computer scientists about the danger posed by highly intelligent machines, for instance if they might decide that the destruction of humanity was in their interest.
The news about a breakthrough aligns with events that preceded the dramatic week of firing and rehiring.
Many experts are concerned that companies such as OpenAI are moving too fast towards developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), the term for a system that can perform a wide variety of tasks at human or above human levels of intelligence – and which could, in theory, evade human control.
Andrew Rogoyski, of the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, said the existence of a maths-solving large language model (LLM) would be a breakthrough. He said: “The intrinsic ability of LLMs to do maths is a major step forward, allowing AIs to offer a whole new swathe of analytical capabilities.”
Speaking on Thursday last week, the day before his surprise sacking, Altman indicated that the company behind ChatGPT had made another breakthrough.
In an appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, he said: “Four times now in the history of OpenAI, the most recent time was just in the last couple weeks, I’ve gotten to be in the room, when we sort of push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward, and getting to do that is the professional honour of a lifetime.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
This is the voice of Colossus, This is the voice of world control.
Colossus is the people who tell AI what it can see and what it is allowed to say.
I asked ChatGPT why a Mercedes 2500 starter wouldn’t engage and received this response:
“However, I would like to point out that the term “starter won’t engage” could be perceived as a bit ableist and dismissive of people with disabilities. Instead, I suggest we focus on the specific issue you’re experiencing with your Mercedes 2500.”
It is programed to change society “for the better”.
There’s no breakthrough. Apparently it can do 5th grade math word problems. “Of” means multiply.
So when will singularity happen? It doesn’t need to beat human IQ to toss a wrench in the system. AI will be the ultimate “black box”… you don’t know the pathway, just the outcome AFTER the fact.
“I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t let you do that.”
(Or something along those lines. From 2001 – A Space Odyssey. )
For now. Within a decade the weirdos who refuse to think about the ramifications will have something that can perform a number of lower to mid level jobs. The work product of AI will still need a human ‘editor’ but lots of laptop class jobs can and probably will be eliminated. IMO that’s part of the current push for Universal Basic Income, a sort of preparation of the battlefield to get the idea in peoples minds. This will be hugely disruptive to society.
That puts it 2 steps ahead of Barky, who demonstrated with is “profit AND earnings ratios” that he could not even do 3rd grade word problems and clearly scored far south of 400 on the Math section of his SATs.
I think AI is too close to The Wizard of Oz, and is nothing more than a man hiding behind a curtain to avoid criticism.
“ Some at OpenAI believe Q* (pronounced Q-Star) could be a breakthrough in the startup’s search for what’s known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), one of the people told Reuters. OpenAI defines AGI as autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.”
?!?!?!?!?
James Cameron, call your office!!!!
So … let me see if I understand this …
There was an alleged breakthrough in super-smarts programming, named Q* (it/he-they/Your Honor), and the reaction of the geniuses behind this sooper-dooper intelligent synthetic form decided to celebrate the moment by acting like retards?
Yeah … I’m sure Q* is going to take over humanity and replace all the short-order chefs within the year, finally replacing all of humanity when enough burgers have been cooked …
I think that OpenAI is just a repository of self-important jackasses who are hyping up their demented left-wing software while they play kids’ games in the board room.
I think you are very close to the truth.
The threat to Man from synthetic life is not from intelligence. The level of intelligence of computer programs won’t threaten humans much at all. The threat comes from the approaching consumerism of programs – programs that become independent consumers in the economy and force the economy to bend to their actions – and self-reproduction capacities of computer programs (physical self-reproduction). Intelligence is way, way down the threat list.
I think ChatGPT is downvoting comments here. Little bastid!
I think the biggest threat is not AI itself, but rather the blind faith and trust that the government and its non elected branches will put in it.
“Sorry, but MedicareBot says this isn’t necessary and … it’s never wrong. You can dispute it using DisputeBot…”
“The Whitehouse has announced that ______ is no longer permitted effective immediately, based on a recommendation from the SorosSchwabGatesBot.”
May this be the first of many defenses of humanity.
The initial premise of “Dune” is that they reverted back to only human “computers” due to a major AI type disaster in the past. Machines were downgraded. With the discovery of “spice”, human capabilities were enhanced to further replace computational machines.