OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did not give a straight answer when directly asked why people should trust him to spearhead artificial intelligence (AI) development during a Monday interview.
Axios co-founder Mike Allen posed the question to Altman amid OpenAI’s Monday release of a blueprint for how the government should handle AI, titled, “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First.” Allen characterized the blueprint and Altman’s comments during the interview as indicating “AI will transform every aspect of our lives,” asking him, “Why should people trust you to be at the forefront of it?”
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Altman opted to spend most of his answer refuting that AI would be completely transformational to human life.
“First of all, not literally ‘every.’ I think there will be many things, and I think this is wonderful, where we only care about other people. We will spend more time with other people,” Altman said. “People will remain the most important part of our lives. We’ll have these incredibly smart machines doing stuff around us. And the most fundamental part of what it means to be human, that’s not going to transform at all.”
“The society may change in a lot of ways. What it means to be a person, what it means to have a fulfilling life, how we choose to spend our time, what we really want, we’ll have more flexibility and more ability to achieve,” he added. “But for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years, we’ve been driven by a lot of the same things. We want more of those. We want higher quality connections with people. We want more time to spend in nature, do what makes us happy. And I think we’ll have that.”
Altman continued his argument about AI not changing key aspects of humanity, but concluded by acknowledging the technology could radically transform how the economy and society function. He then addressed the trust aspect of Allen’s query, but did not directly address why he personally should be trusted to oversee the technology.
“I just really wanted to get that point across. On the trust point, it’s incredibly important that people building AI are high integrity, trustworthy people,” he said. “And I think almost everybody involved in our industry feels the gravity of what we’re doing. And so we all take that responsibility very seriously. We feel that weight every day. We also think it’s very important that no one person is making the decisions by themselves that are going to impact all of us. I don’t think we should have to trust a single person to get every decision right.”
“We really believe in the democratization of AI,” he continued. “We really believe in putting this tool in the hands of people and letting people understand it, figure out what rules society collectively wants to put around it, and most importantly, how we’re going to integrate it into our lives and have all these incredible benefits that we think are possible.”
OpenAI’s ChatGPT maintains the overwhelming majority of AI chatbot market share, according to recent data. The company’s board of directors also ousted Altman on Nov. 17, 2023, over concerns regarding his trustworthiness.
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” a blog post announcing the decision stated. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
However, the company reinstated Altman just days later.
OpenAI has also faced backlash for alleged wokeness and left-wing leadership.
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