OpenAI on Friday said that it has disbanded a team devoted to mitigating the long-term dangers of super-smart artificial intelligence (AI).
It began dissolving the so-called “superalignment” group weeks ago, integrating members into other projects and research, the San Francisco-based firm said.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and team coleader Jan Leike announced their departures from the company during the week.
Photo: Michael Dwyer, AP
The dismantling of a team focused on keeping sophisticated AI under control comes as such technology faces increased scrutiny from regulators and fears mount regarding its dangers.
“OpenAI must become a safety-first AGI [artificial general intelligence] company,” Leike wrote on X on Friday.
Leike called on all OpenAI employees to “act with the gravitas” warranted by what they are building.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Leike’s post with one of his own.
Altman thanked Leike for his work at the company and said he was sad to see him leave.
“He’s right, we have a lot more to do,” Altman said. “We are committed to doing it.”
Altman promised more on the topic in the coming days.
Sutskever said on X that he was leaving after almost a decade at OpenAI, the trajectory of which “has been nothing short of miraculous.”
“I’m confident that OpenAI will build AGI that is both safe and beneficial,” he added, referring to computer technology that seeks to perform as well as — or better than — human cognition.
Sutskever, who is also OpenAI’s chief scientist, sat on the board that voted to remove Altman in November last year.
The ousting threw the company into a tumult, as staff and investors rebelled.
The OpenAI board ended up hiring Altman back a few days later.
OpenAI earlier last week released a higher-performing and even more human-like version of the AI technology that underpins ChatGPT, which was made free to all users.
“It feels like AI from the movies,” Altman said in a blog post.
Altman has previously pointed to Scarlett Johansson’s character in the movie Her, where she voices an AI-based virtual assistant dating a man, as an inspiration for where he would like AI interactions to go.
The day would come when “digital brains will become as good and even better than our own,” Sutskever said at a talk during a TED AI summit in San Francisco late last year.
“AGI will have a dramatic impact on every area of life,” Sutskever added.
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