What Did OpenAI Do This Week?

FROM CONTROVERSY TO COLLABORATION: OPENAI’S NEW ERA?

The release of another open letter from OpenAI employees past and present (endorsed by Geoffrey Hinton) detailed a culture of recklessness, secrecy and mismanagement at OpenAI. The core ask? What else but for greater safety measures to be implemented as OpenAI and big tech pursue the development of AGI (artificial general intelligence) at breakneck speed in the search for profit and control. Lots of nice phrasing including “the loss of control of autonomous AI systems” and the always nice to hear, “human extinction”.

Sam Altman also faced scrutiny over his investments and net worth - Altman and his venture funds have invested in 400+ companies, and his holdings are worth $2.8B+. Some overlap significantly (Helion energy company for one). Altman isn’t the devil incarnate, but he increasingly looks less squeaky clean and more calculated as a result.

OpenAI later released a research paper detailing the method for reverse engineering the workings of AI models. Aimed at showing that the company is serious about tackling AI risk, high-level details on the security architecture of their research supercomputers were shared in research conducted by the recently disbanded ‘super alignment team’. Is OpenAI trying to be more transparent or placate a hunger for a bond-style villain narrative that seems to be forming?

What the world is really waiting for is more detail of the team-up with Apple (known for its consumer stance on consumer privacy). What is it going to mean for OpenAI and the wider world? Any move with Apple usually means billions not millions are talked about. More will be revealed on Monday, June 10th, with Apple’s WWDC. We’ll watch live and make sure subscribers have the full list of what was announced, the implications and winners and losers. Watch this space.

Subscribe to find out what this partnership will mean for you and +25 other news items and links this week… ⬇

SO WHAT?