The CEO of OpenAI spoke about the open letter and GPT-5 while addressing an event at MIT.
Ever since the launch of GPT-4, a lot is being written about its astounding capabilities. Perhaps, its precision and accuracy have also triggered the worries of many who have been wary of the rapid developments in AI technologies. Consequently, there has been a lot of chatter around the advanced version, GPT-5.
While some reports suggested that OpenAI is planning to complete the training of its latest iteration by the end of this year, some reports suggested that the new version will be pathbreaking as it will be able to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) a stage where machines will be able to display human-like intelligence and comprehension.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has broken his silence related to the recent open letter that sought a monetary halt on the developments of AI systems. Altman, while speaking at an event at MIT, shared his views on the letter. He also stated that his company was not working on GPT-5 for now. He said that OpenAI was not training GPT-5 and will not do so for some time.
Sam Altman talks about the open letter
Talking about the open letter, Altman said that he agreed with part of it. He said that OpenAI spent over six months training GPT-4 before releasing it, to study the safety and get external audits and red teamers to understand the process and mitigate issues. He also said that ever since the launch of the GPT board, many have hailed it as the most capable model and by far the safest and most aligned one.
Altman said that he agreed that there was a need to get more serious about safety capabilities and that the safety bar has to increase. However, he also lamented the lack of technical nuance on where exactly the pause was needed in the developments. He said that an earlier version of the letter claimed that his company was training GPT-5, a claim which he refuted.
“I think moving with caution and increasing rigor for safety issues is really important. The letter I don’t think is the optimal way to address it,” Altman said in his virtual address at the event.
Talking about the philosophy of OpenAI, Alman said that AI is going to impact all, hence it was important to engage with everyone. “Our goal at OpenAI is to get the world to engage with this and think about it and gradually update and build new institutions or adapt our existing institutions to be able to figure out what the future we all want,” he said.
Growing concerns around AI
A few weeks ago about 1000 dignitaries including billionaire Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak signed an open letter seeking a six-month halt on developments on AI systems that can compete with human intelligence.
The letter which until a few weeks ago had over 13,000 signatures expressed apprehension on the development of programs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Bing AI Chatbot, and Google Bard as they may have negative consequences if left unchecked leading to widespread disinformation and robbing human jobs.
Source:indianexpress.com