OpenAI has a new safety team — it's run by Sam Altman
OpenAI has announced the formation of a new safety team led by CEO Sam Altman, along with board members Adam D’Angelo and Nicole Seligman. This new committee is tasked with making recommendations on critical safety and security decisions for OpenAI projects and operations.
First Task of the Safety Team
The primary focus of the new safety team will be to evaluate and enhance OpenAI’s existing processes and safeguards. Once their assessment is complete, the findings will be presented to OpenAI’s board, of which all three safety team leaders are members. The board will then deliberate on how best to implement the recommendations put forth by the safety team.
Background Context
The establishment of this safety team comes in the wake of the resignations of key AI researchers from OpenAI, including co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Sutskever, who was instrumental in the creation of OpenAI’s Superalignment team, departed following disagreements with the board and CEO Altman. Shortly after Sutskever's departure, Jan Leike, the other co-leader of the Superalignment team, also announced his exit from the company.
Concerns over safety practices at OpenAI were further highlighted by the resignation of policy researcher Gretchen Krueger. These departures underscored the importance of prioritizing safety in AI development at OpenAI.
Recent Developments
OpenAI recently introduced a new voice model for ChatGPT named Sky, drawing comparisons to the voice of Scarlett Johansson. Altman addressed these comparisons, stating that Johansson had declined offers to provide her voice for the AI model. This incident raised questions about the ethical considerations surrounding AI development and voice modeling.
Other members of OpenAI’s new safety team include Aleksander Madry, Lilian Weng, John Schulman, Matt Knight, and Jakub Pachocki. Despite these efforts, some remain skeptical about whether OpenAI is effectively addressing the safety concerns raised by former employees.
Stay tuned for further updates on OpenAI’s initiatives and developments in the field of AI safety.
