OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, laid out its plans for staying ahead of what it thinks could be serious dangers of the tech it develops, such as allowing bad actors to learn how to build chemical and biological weapons. OpenAI’s “Preparedness” team, led by MIT AI professor Aleksander Madry, will hire AI researchers, computer scientists, national security experts and policy professionals to monitor the tech, continually test it and warn the company if it believes any of its AI capabilities are becoming dangerous. The team sits between OpenAI’s “Safety Systems” team, which works on such existing problems as infusing racist biases into AI, and the company’s “Superalignment” team, which researches how to ensure AI doesn’t harm humans in an imagined future where the tech has outstripped human intelligence completely. The popularity of ChatGPT and the advance of generative AI technology have triggered a debate within the tech community about how dangerous the technology could become. Prominent AI leaders from OpenAI, Google and Microsoft warned this year that the tech could pose an existential danger to humankind, on par with pandemics or nuclear weapons. Other AI researchers have said the focus on those big, frightening risks allows companies to distract from the harmful effects the tech is already having. A growing group of AI business leaders say that the risks are overblown and that companies should charge ahead with developing the tech to help improve society — and make money doing it.
Full story : OpenAI lays out plan for dealing with dangers of AI.
