AI firms mustn’t govern themselves, say ex-members of OpenAI’s board

Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner were bounced from OpenAI’s board after the ousting and rehiring of Sam Altman. In an essay in The Economist they share their thoughts on oversight:

If any company could have successfully governed itself while safely and ethically developing advanced AI systems, it would have been OpenAI. The organisation was originally established as a non-profit with a laudable mission: to ensure that AGI, or artificial general intelligence—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—would benefit “all of humanity”. Later, a for-profit subsidiary was created to raise the necessary capital, but the non-profit stayed in charge. The stated purpose of this unusual structure was to protect the company’s ability to stick to its original mission, and the board’s mandate was to uphold that mission. It was unprecedented, but it seemed worth trying. Unfortunately it didn’t work.

This is the other side of the story. And it’s well worth the read.

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