to manage the risks of superintelligent artificial intelligence. A superintelligence is a hypothetical AI model that is smarter than even the most gifted and intelligent human, and excels at multiple areas of expertise instead of one domain like some previous generation models. OpenAI believes such a model could arrive before the end of the decade.
The new team will be co-lead by OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, the research lab's head of alignment. Additionally, OpenAI said it would dedicate 20 percent of its currently secured compute power to the initiative, with the goal of developing an. Such a system would theoretically assist OpenAI in ensuring a superintelligence is safe to use and aligned with human values.
Wednesday’s announcement comes as governments around the world consider how to regulate the nascent AI industry. In the US, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, hasin recent months. Publicly, Altman has said AI regulation is “essential,” and that OpenAI is “eager” to work with policymakers. But we should be skeptical of such proclamations, and indeed efforts like OpenAI’s Superalignment team.