OpenAI Employees Warn of Advanced AI Dangers

[MacRumors]

Several current and former employees of OpenAI and Google DeepMind today shared an open letter warning of the dangers of advanced AI and the current lack of oversight of companies working on AI technology.

The employees suggest there are a number of risks that we are facing from AI development, including further entrenchment of existing inequalities, manipulation and misinformation, and loss of control of autonomous AI systems, which the letter says could lead to human extinction.

AI companies have "strong financial incentives" to forge ahead with development and to avoid sharing information about their protective measures and risk levels. "We do not think they can all be relied upon to share it voluntarily," reads the letter, which says that it is up to current and former employees to speak out.

So long as there is no effective government oversight of these corporations, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable to the public. Yet broad confidentiality agreements block us from voicing our concerns, except to the very companies that may be failing to address these issues. Ordinary whistleblower protections are insufficient because they focus on illegal activity, whereas many of the risks we are concerned about are not yet regulated.

Employees are ultimately calling on AI companies to offer solid whistleblower protections for speaking out about the risks of AI.

• Avoid creating or enforcing agreements that prevent criticism for risk-related concerns.
• Offer a verifiably anonymous process for employees to raise risk-related concerns to the board, regulators, and independent organizations with relevant expertise.
• Support a culture of open criticism to allow employees to raise risk-related concerns about technologies to the public, the board, regulators, and more, as long as trade secrets are protected.
• Avoid retaliating against employees who publicly share risk-related confidential information after other processes have failed.

A total of 13 employees signed the letter, including seven former OpenAI employees, four current OpenAI employees, one former Google DeepMind employee, and one current Google DeepMind employee. OpenAI has threatened employees with loss of vested equity for speaking up, and it makes them sign draconian NDA agreements that muzzle criticism.

The letter comes as Apple prepares to announce multiple AI-powered features for iOS 18 and other software updates on Monday. Apple is working on its own AI functionality that will be baked into apps across the operating system, plus it has signed a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT features into iOS 18.

Article Link: OpenAI Employees Warn of Advanced AI Dangers

 

[GoosePoops]

I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords.

 

[iBreatheApple]

I really can’t handle all the doom and gloom we have to face on a daily basis. The sky is falling media headlines, the election, protests, our country’s border disintegrating (USA), people being hateful and violent in general, the comment sections online, knowing about every injustice that ever happens, every tragedy, every disaster…
Where is the internet kill switch.

 

[icanhazmac]

I applaud their efforts but I fear this cat is out of the bag and even if civilized countries and/or entities behave, others won't.

 

[123jmail]

Uhmm, if a potential whistle-blower is witnessing a threat as serious as human extinction, why is he or she worried about potential retaliation from the corporation? In a situation like that, you blow the whistle no matter the personal consequences, unless, of course, you're just being a bit dramatic.

 

[mannyvel]

It's time to worry when LLMs can train themselves.

 

[Drs247]

Basically what Elon Musk has been saying all along.
I don't trust companies like MS (OpenAI) or Google to be "responsible" with it.

 

[goobot]

Who cares about human extinction when we can increase our profits from 80 billion to 81 billion

 

[subjonas]

Uhmm, if a potential whistle-blower is witnessing a threat as serious as human extinction, why is he or she worried about potential retaliation from the corporation? In a situation like that, you blow the whistle no matter the personal consequences, unless, of course, you're just being a bit dramatic.

Because no one really knows exactly how likely or big the risk is, there are too many variables. And it’s really easy to tell someone else to put their livelihood on the line. What they’ve done already takes more courage than most people have.

 

[AppleFan735]

> AI companies have "strong financial incentives" to forge ahead with development and to avoid sharing information about their protective measures and risk levels.

Incumbent leaders like OpenAI and most definitely Google have an even "stronger financial incentive" to push for regulatory capture.

 

[Attirex]

Human extinction lol. Ok pets.com sock puppet.

 

[fatTribble]

I really can’t handle all the doom and gloom we have to face on a daily basis. The sky is falling media headlines, the election, protests, our country’s border disintegrating (USA), people being hateful and violent in general, the comment sections online, knowing about every injustice that ever happens, every tragedy, every disaster…
Where is the internet kill switch.

Turn It all off except for I Love Lucy. It works for me.

 

[Lift Bar]

Extremely wealthy individuals, investors, and companies push doomsday narratives to make AI seem like it will take over everything, making it worth trillions instead of billions. This FUD discourages investment in real products and true innovation.

It’s an insidious tactic to manipulate markets or is touted by people seeking phony jobs and “influence” in AI “alignment.”

 

[123jmail]

I applaud their efforts but I fear this cat is out of the bag and even if civilized countries and/or entities behave, others won't.

Exactly, which begs the question, who do we trust to "regulate" it? Governments are made up of fallible, imperfect, partisan individuals, just like the boards of corporations.

 

[coffeemilktea]

which the letter says could lead to human extinction.

I think they need to leave the tech bubble for a bit and touch some grass. There's way too many people in tech huffing the Artificial General Intelligence glue and worrying about some hypothetical Skynet / Ultron scenario, when in reality AI has only made it slightly beyond Clippy and the most cutting-edge models from multi-trillion dollar companies think people should eat glue.

Realistically, if people are concerned about AI perpetuating "entrenchment of existing inequalities, manipulation and misinformation," they should push for open-source AI development, so anyone and everyone can have voice, instead of all the decision-making power being concentrated in the hands of the government and the multi-trillion-dollar companies who can afford to lobby to get their way... those guys are the real danger.

 

[jz0309]

13 people, wish there were more ...
and in the grand scheme, the "AI hype" esp by Wall Street (eg NVDA etc) will roll over these concerns ... and as for regulation, look how a 98% market share (Google search) is "treated", nothing gonna happen for the next decade

 

[Populus]

I thought future was about flying cars… I guess future was about robots, after all…

Spoiler

 

[Flowstates]

Basically what Elon Musk has been saying all along.
I don't trust companies like MS (OpenAI) or Google to be "responsible" with it.

You mean the guy that called for a "pause" before spinning his own ai company because he was unable to wrangle control of the entity he was previously a board member of ? Truly the dumb man's smart guy.

Alot of the fud around runaway AI is part of the narrative pursued by VC's and startups, building themselves as saviours/destructors of the world. Allowing to capture mindshare away from the very real and current issues like ubiquitous surveillance and monopolistic behaviours.

On the other side, some of the practices that came to light with OAI blocking equity and building contingencies around non-disparagement clauses are dangerous.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Extremely wealthy individuals, investors, and companies push doomsday narratives to make AI seem like it will take over everything, making it worth trillions instead of billions. This FUD discourages investment in real products and true innovation.

It’s an insidious tactic to manipulate markets or is touted by people seeking phony jobs and “influence” in AI “alignment.”

so instead of heeding a potential warning we scoff and move on? Which is the more rational and logical path to take when it’s the insiders telling us to watch out… your perspective isn’t that farfetched, but which side is to “be believed”. Imagine a “doomsday” comes and they say we tried warning you. Hard for the common person to know what to do. Do we escalate this and push for oversight or do we ignore it and hope they’re liars?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I thought future was about flying cars… I guess future was about robots, after all…

Spoiler

Robots enjoying their flying cars.

 

[GoosePoops]

I really can’t handle all the doom and gloom we have to face on a daily basis. The sky is falling media headlines, the election, protests, our country’s border disintegrating (USA), people being hateful and violent in general, the comment sections online, knowing about every injustice that ever happens, every tragedy, every disaster…
Where is the internet kill switch.

You forgot microplastics (aka millennial asbestos)

 

[Flowstates]

You forgot microplastics (aka millennial asbestos)

I wish that it was only a millennial problem.

 

[Flowstates]

Uhmm, if a potential whistle-blower is witnessing a threat as serious as human extinction, why is he or she worried about potential retaliation from the corporation? In a situation like that, you blow the whistle no matter the personal consequences, unless, of course, you're just being a bit dramatic.

Tell that to Ed. Snowden

 

[vvv7]

"OpenAI has approximately 1.9K employees as of May 2024."

 

[DJLAXL]

Tethics.....