OpenAI has reportedly dissolved its team dedicated to addressing the long-term risks of artificial intelligence, just a year after its formation.
Some team members are being reassigned within the company.
This decision follows the recent departures of team leaders, OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike.
Leike said OpenAI’s “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.”
He wrote on X: “I joined because I thought OpenAI would be the best place in the world to do this research.
“However, I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company’s core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point.”
The Superalignment team, announced last year, aimed to achieve breakthroughs to steer and control highly intelligent AI systems.
Over four years, OpenAI pledged 20 percent of its computing power to this initiative.
“I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company’s core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point”
OpenAI did not comment directly.
However, it referred to CEO Sam Altman’s recent post on X.
The boss expressed sadness over Leike’s departure and emphasized more work needs to be done.
Co-founder Greg Brockman also posted on X, reaffirming the company’s commitment to raising awareness of AGI risks and opportunities.
This news, first reported by Wired, comes after a turbulent period for OpenAI.
Sutskever and Leike announced their departures on Tuesday, May 14.
Leike criticized the focus on product development over crucial safety research.
He revealed that his team faced significant challenges, including limited computing resources, making it increasingly difficult to conduct essential research.
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Given the inherent dangers, he emphasized the need for OpenAI to prioritize safety in developing smarter-than-human machines.
The departures add to OpenAI’s recent leadership turmoil.
In November, the board ousted Altman, citing inconsistent communication, but he was reinstated within a week following internal and investor backlash.
Sutskever, initially supportive of Altman’s ousting, stayed on staff but not on the board.
Altman praised Sutskever’s contributions and announced that research director Jakub Pachocki would replace him as chief scientist.
The departures and team dissolution occurred shortly after OpenAI launched a new AI model and an updated ChatGPT interface, aiming to expand the use of its popular chatbot.
The new GPT-4 model, introduced at a live-streamed event, offers faster performance and improved text, video, and audio capabilities.
According to technology chief Mira Murati, OpenAI plans to eventually enable video chat with ChatGPT, marking a significant step forward in user experience.
