Sources claim OpenAI researchers informed the board about the AI breakthrough before the CEO’s ouster. Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters that some staff researchers warned the board of directors about a potentially dangerous artificial intelligence breakthrough in a letter they prepared before OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s four-day banishment.
The two people claimed that the previously undisclosed letter and the AI algorithm were significant advancements before the board fired Altman, the face of generative AI. Over 700 workers had vowed to resign to support their ousted boss, Microsoft (MSFT.O), before his victorious comeback late Tuesday.
The sources identified the letter as one element in the broader list of board complaints that resulted in Altman’s termination, including worries about commercializing advancements before fully realizing the ramifications. No copy of the letter was available for Reuters to examine. Requests for a response from the staff member who penned the letter were unanswered.
One of the persons claimed that OpenAI, which did not want to comment when approached by Reuters, disclosed a project named Q* in an internal memo to employees and a board letter before the weekend events. A representative for OpenAI stated that the communication, which seasoned executive Mira Murati wrote, informed employees of specific media reports without addressing their veracity.
According to someone who spoke with Reuters, some at OpenAI think Q*—pronounced Q-Star—might significantly advance the company’s quest for artificial general intelligence (AGI). OpenAI defines AGI as autonomous systems outperforming humans in the most economically significant tasks.
The person, who spoke anonymously because they were not allowed to talk on behalf of the corporation, said that the new model could have some mathematical issues given its enormous computational capacity. The source stated that despite Q*’s rudimentary math skills, they aced these exams, which gave researchers great hope for Q*’s prospects.
Reuters could not independently confirm the researchers’ claims about Q*’s capabilities.
Researchers see math as a frontier for the creation of generative AI. Answers to the same topic can differ significantly, and generative AI is now competent at writing and language translation by statistically predicting the following word. However, mastering arithmetic, where there is just one correct answer, suggests AI might be more capable of reasoning like a human. Researchers in artificial intelligence believe this may be used, for example, in new scientific studies.
AGI can learn, grasp, and generalize compared to a calculator, which is restricted in the number of operations it can perform.
The sources stated that although the researchers did not name the safety issues raised in the letter to the board, they highlighted AI’s potential for harm. Artificial intelligence (AI) poses a threat, and computer scientists have long discussed the possibility that these machines might decide it would be in their best interests to exterminate humanity.
Scholars have also brought attention to the activities of a group of “AI scientists,” whose existence has been verified by several sources. According to one of the participants, the group was investigating ways to optimize current AI models to enhance their reasoning and eventually carry out scientific work. It was developed by integrating previous “Code Gen” and “Math Gen” teams.
Altman spearheaded the development of ChatGPT, one of the fastest-growing software programs ever, and he convinced Microsoft to provide the funding and processing power required to get the program closer to artificial intelligence.
Apart from revealing an array of novel instruments during a presentation earlier this month, Altman hinted last week at a global leaders’ gathering in San Francisco that he thought significant breakthroughs were imminent.
“Four times in the history of OpenAI, the most recent time was just in the last couple of weeks. I’ve gotten to be in the room when we push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward, and getting to do that is the professional honor of a lifetime,” he stated during the summit on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Altman was let go by the board a day later.
