OpenAI on Monday outlined the blueprint for its third phase of operations which will focus on pushing automated AI researchers into widespread adoption. Company CEO Sam Altman, in a published statement, said that the AI firm plans to allocate a “significant fraction” of its research work to automated systems which will work in parallels with human scientists.
The announcement of OpenAI entering its next phase of operations came alongside its confidential IPO filing with the SEC which it revealed on Monday as well.
OpenAI outines future plans ahead of IPO
OpenAI was founded back in 2015. Altman said over the last decade the company managed to complete two phases of its operations — building the foundation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and gathering data on how people across the world engage with the technology.
Moving forward, the company plans to inject the technology into the daily lives and workings of individuals as well as corporations — well within the oversight of humans.
“AI will soon be capable of extraordinary things. The point is what people can do with it. It can help someone navigate a medical bill, learn a new skill, start a small business,” said the joint statement by Altman and OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki. “We are optimistic about AI because we believe it can expand human capability and prosperity.”
Entering the third phase of its operations, OpenAI plans to make advanced AI more vastly available, cheaper, and safer for use on a global level.
It hinged the pace of AI progress in the coming times to the speed at which humans, under their oversight, use the technology itself for its growth and expansion.
OpenAI just called automation dangerous
In a rather bold acknowledgement of the risks associated with AI, OpenAI has labelled advanced level automation as dangerous and unfulfilling. The technology, OpenAI believes, must be safely aligned with human intent and under human control.
“Entirely automating everything is not the future we want,” said Altman and Pachocki. “Our mission at OpenAI is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity. That means building systems that help people do more of what they choose, not systems that replace human judgment about what matters.”
After a high-stakes legal battle with Elon Musk — who had called out OpenAI of abandoning its mission for creating AI for the benefit of the people towards a pro-profits approach — OpenAI said its first committment is to build AI in service of humanity.
As AI advances, humans would have to take up the role of setting direction for the technology, applying judgement, and bringing value to its functioning. A more widespread human participation in AI development would keep the technology and the profits it can bring to the table from getting concentrated in the hands of a few powerful entities, Altman’s statement highlighted.
To curb the foreseeable risks of AI, OpenAI has called for global cooperation. Much like global watchdogs that control sectors like finance, Altman said, an international organization must be established to coordinate global efforts to mitigate risks that could stem from progressive AI advancement.
“A good AI future should be a future where many people, companies, communities, and countries can build, benefit, and hold power. That is why access matters. It is also why safety, privacy, affordability, open ecosystems, and public oversight matter,” the statement said.
OpenAI’s risk acknowledgement follows one from Anthropic
While OpenAI plans to increase the integration of the AI tech into its research efforts, its competitor Anthropic recently shared its own experience with the development.
In a blog titled “When AI builds itself,” Anthropic last week said AI systems are already accelerating AI development inside Anthropic, with Claude now handling a growing share of engineering and research work that was once performed almost entirely by humans.
Anthropic essentially acknowledged that it is inevitable that in the coming times an AI system would be capable of autonomously building a more capable successor. However, what concerned the AI company was that this future, that seemed far away some years ago, is approaching sooner than expected.
Anthropic has alarmingly called for a temporary pause in building newer AI models for the time being.
Powerful AI models like Anthropic’s Mythos have already rung warning bells within the tech fraternity. In April, Anthropic made a rather unusual decision to keep its Claude Mythos AI model away from the public claiming that its capabilities could result in the fallout of economies, public safety, and technologies.
More global agencies are gradually taking note of the rapid growth in AI advancements with the technology being largely unregulated in most parts of the world.
In May, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the the tech and finance industries among others are under threat of systemic risks wherein a single AI-related exploit could lead to a cascade of interrelated failures putting market liquidity and stability at major risk.
