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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his