This Week in AI: OpenAI shifts focus from safety

OpenAI, a prominent player in the AI industry, made headlines this week with the launch of their latest generative model, GPT-4o. However, the company also faced controversy as they disbanded a team focused on developing controls to prevent “superintelligent” AI systems from going rogue. This decision led to the resignation of two co-leads, Jan Leike and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, highlighting a shift towards prioritizing product launches over safety research.

The move by OpenAI has raised concerns about the company’s leadership, particularly CEO Sam Altman, who has been criticized for rushing AI-powered features and deprioritizing safety measures. The company has also faced scrutiny for allowing its chatbot store to fill up with spam and allegedly scraping data from YouTube against the platform’s terms of service.

In other AI news, OpenAI reached an agreement with Reddit to use the social site’s data for AI model training, Google debuted a slew of AI products at its annual I/O developer conference, and Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram, joined Anthropic as the company’s first chief product officer.

Additionally, researchers at Cambridge University have raised ethical concerns about using AI to create chatbots trained on a dead person’s data, while physicists at MIT are exploring the use of AI for predicting physical systems’ phases. CU Boulder is also discussing the potential applications of AI in disaster management, emphasizing the importance of human-centered AI for effective response and recovery practices.

Overall, the AI industry continues to evolve rapidly, with advancements and controversies shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Stay tuned for more updates on this fast-moving industry.