Altman, who was recently ousted by OpenAI’s board for reasons that have had no shortage of speculation, has found a new home at Microsoft. The announcement came after unsuccessful negotiations with OpenAI’s board to reinstate Altman.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella – who has long expressed confidence in Altman’s vision and leadership – revealed that Altman and Brockman will lead Microsoft’s newly established advanced AI research team.

Nadella expressed excitement about the collaboration, stating, “We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”

The move follows Altman’s abrupt departure from OpenAI. Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear has been appointed as interim CEO at OpenAI.

Altman’s role at Microsoft is anticipated to build on the company’s strategy of allowing founders and innovators space to create independent identities, similar to Microsoft’s approach with GitHub, Mojang Studios, and LinkedIn.

Microsoft’s decision to bring Altman and Brockman on board coincides with the development of its custom AI chip. The Maia AI chip, designed to train large language models, aims to reduce dependence on Nvidia.

While Microsoft reassures its commitment to the OpenAI partnership, valued at approximately $10 billion, it emphasises ongoing innovation and support for customers and partners.

As Altman and Brockman embark on leading Microsoft’s advanced AI research team, the industry will be watching closely to see what the high-profile figures can do with Microsoft’s resources at their disposal. The industry will also be observing whether OpenAI can maintain its success under different leadership.

(Photo by Turag Photography on Unsplash)

See also: Amdocs, NVIDIA and Microsoft Azure build custom LLMs for telcos

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Recently, Geoffrey Hinton – the so-called “Godfather of AI” – expressed his worries about the possibility of superintelligent AI surpassing human capabilities and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity.

Similarly, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot, admitted to being fearful of the potential effects of advanced AI on society.

In response to these concerns, OpenAI has announced the establishment of a new unit called Superalignment.

The primary goal of this initiative is to ensure that superintelligent AI does not lead to chaos or even human extinction. OpenAI acknowledges the immense power that superintelligence can possess and the potential dangers it presents to humanity.

While the development of superintelligent AI may still be some years away, OpenAI believes it could be a reality by 2030. Currently, there is no established system for controlling and guiding a potentially superintelligent AI, making the need for proactive measures all the more crucial.

Superalignment aims to build a team of top machine learning researchers and engineers who will work on developing a “roughly human-level automated alignment researcher.” This researcher will be responsible for conducting safety checks on superintelligent AI systems. 

OpenAI acknowledges that this is an ambitious goal and that success is not guaranteed. However, the company remains optimistic that with a focused and concerted effort, the problem of superintelligence alignment can be solved.

The rise of AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard has already brought significant changes to the workplace and society. Experts predict that these changes will only intensify in the near future, even before the advent of superintelligent AI.

Recognising the transformative potential of AI, governments worldwide are racing to establish regulations to ensure its safe and responsible deployment. However, the lack of a unified international approach poses challenges. Varying regulations across countries could lead to different outcomes and make achieving Superalignment’s goal even more difficult.

By proactively working towards aligning AI systems with human values and developing necessary governance structures, OpenAI aims to mitigate the dangers that could arise from the immense power of superintelligence.

While the task at hand is undoubtedly complex, OpenAI’s commitment to addressing these challenges and involving top researchers in the field signifies a significant effort towards responsible and beneficial AI development.

(Photo by Zac Wolff on Unsplash)

See also: OpenAI’s first global office will be in London

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Altman highlighted the potential benefits of AI technologies like ChatGPT and Dall-E 2 to help address significant challenges such as climate change and cancer, but he also stressed the need to mitigate the risks associated with increasingly powerful AI models.

Altman proposed that governments consider implementing licensing and testing requirements for AI models that surpass a certain threshold of capabilities. He highlighted OpenAI’s commitment to safety and extensive testing before releasing any new systems, emphasising the company’s belief that ensuring the safety of AI is crucial.

Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal expressed their recognition of the transformative nature of AI and the need to understand its implications for elections, jobs, and security. Blumenthal played an audio introduction using an AI voice cloning software trained on his speeches, demonstrating the potential of the technology.

Blumenthal raised concerns about various risks associated with AI, including deepfakes, weaponised disinformation, discrimination, harassment, and impersonation fraud. He also emphasised the potential displacement of workers in the face of a new industrial revolution driven by AI.

Altman’s call for regulation aligns with concerns raised by AI experts and ethicists, including former Google researchers Dr Timnit Gebru and Meredith Whitaker. They argue that the rapid adoption of AI is overhyped and fails to deliver inherent social good. 

Whitaker highlighted the concentration of power in the hands of a few tech companies and their ability to shape social and political landscapes through AI technologies. She expressed concerns about the existing power dynamics and emphasised the need for a more equitable distribution of AI capabilities.

Whitaker cautioned against the notion that AI will automatically lead to social good or equal access for all, arguing that it is a fantasy propagated for marketing purposes. She stressed the importance of acknowledging the concentration of power and the need to ensure that AI is harnessed for the benefit of society as a whole.

As AI continues to advance, the conversation surrounding its regulation and responsible deployment becomes increasingly important. Balancing the potential benefits with the risks and ensuring equitable access and distribution of AI technologies are key challenges that policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders must address collectively.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke remotely at an MIT event and was quizzed about AI by computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman.

Altman confirmed that OpenAI is not currently developing a fifth version of its Generative Pre-trained Transformer model and is instead focusing on enhancing the capabilities of GPT-4, the latest version.

Altman was asked about the open letter that urged developers to pause training AI models larger than GPT-4 for six months. While he supported the idea of ensuring AI models are safe and aligned with human values, he believed that the letter lacked technical nuance regarding where to pause.

“An earlier version of the letter claims we are training GPT-5 right now. We are not, and won’t for some time. So in that sense, it was sort of silly,” said Altman.

“We are doing things on top of GPT-4 that I think have all sorts of safety issues that we need to address.”

GPT-4 is a significant improvement over its predecessor, GPT-3, which was released in 2020. 

GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters, making it one of the largest language models in existence. OpenAI has not confirmed GPT-4’s exact number of parameters but it’s estimated to be in the region of one trillion.

OpenAI said in a blog post that GPT-4 is “more creative and collaborative than ever before” and “can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy, thanks to its broader general knowledge and problem-solving abilities.”

In a simulated law bar exam, GPT-3.5 scored around the bottom 10 percent. GPT-4, however, passed the exam among the top 10 percent.

OpenAI is one of the leading AI research labs in the world, and its GPT models have been used for a wide range of applications, including language translation, chatbots, and content creation. However, the development of such large language models has raised concerns about their safety and ethical implications.

Altman’s comments suggest that OpenAI is aware of the concerns surrounding its GPT models and is taking steps to address them.

While GPT-5 may not be on the horizon, the continued development of GPT-4 and the creation of other models on top of it will undoubtedly raise further questions about the safety and ethical implications of such AI models.

(Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash)

Related: ​​Italy will lift ChatGPT ban if OpenAI fixes privacy issues

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GPT-3 arrived in 2020. An improved version, GPT-3.5, powers the ChatGPT chatbot.

During a video interview with StrictlyVC, Altman responded to expectations that GPT-4 will come in the first half of the year by saying: “It’ll come out at some point, when we are confident we can do it safely and responsibly.”

OpenAI has never rushed the release of its models due to concerns about the societal impact. The ability to generate mass amounts of content could exacerbate issues like misinformation and propaganda.

A paper (PDF) from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism found that GPT-3 is able to generate “influential” text that has the potential to radicalise people into far-right extremist ideologies.

OpenAI originally provided access to GPT to a small number of trusted researchers and developers. While it developed more robust safeguards, a waitlist was then introduced. The waitlist was removed in November 2021 but work on improving safety is an ongoing process.

“To ensure API-backed applications are built responsibly, we provide tools and help developers use best practices so they can bring their applications to production quickly and safely,” wrote OpenAI in a blog post.

“As our systems evolve and we work to improve the capabilities of our safeguards, we expect to continue streamlining the process for developers, refining our usage guidelines, and allowing even more use cases over time.”

Excitement around GPT-4 is growing and wild claims are emerging.

One of the viral claims is that GPT-4 will feature 100 trillion parameters, up from GPT-3’s 175 billion. On this claim, Altman was quite succinct in calling it “complete bullshit”.

Altman goes on to express his view that such speculation is unhealthy and not realistic at this point.

“The GPT-4 rumour mill is a ridiculous thing. I don’t know where it all comes from,” commented Altman. “People are begging to be disappointed.”

“The hype is just like… We don’t have an actual AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and that is sort of what is expected of us.”

While it’s clear that Altman wants the community to temper its expectations, he is happy to say that a video-generating model will come—although won’t put a timeframe on when.

“It’s a legitimate research project. It could be pretty soon; it could take a while,” said Altman.

Models to generate video would require the ultimate safeguards. Many people know they can’t trust everything they read and a growing number know that images can also be generated with relative ease.

Manipulated video, such as deepfakes, are already proving to be problematic. People are easily convinced by what they think they can see.

We’ve seen deepfakes of figures like disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to commit fraud, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to disinform, and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to defame and make her appear drunk.

OpenAI is doing the right thing by taking its time to minimise risks and keeping expectations in check.

(Photo by Niklas Kickl on Unsplash)

Relevant: Microsoft releases Azure OpenAI Service and will add ChatGPT ‘soon’

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