Is OpenAI Moving Too Fast?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

OpenAI was started for the express purpose of trying to be cautious and responsible in developing AI technology. But after a 10 billion dollar investment from Microsoft it feels like we have not seen the actions of transparency and caution that were part of their charter, says Fei-Fei Li. Every company building AI is having discussions about what's the right speed and level of risk to accept as they develop new forms of artificial intelligence. There needs to be coordination within companies but I think across companies as well there have to be some conversations about what’s the right speed," she said.

When Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times, demoed an AI-powered version of Microsoft's search engine last month, he was blown away. "I'm switching my desktop computer's default search engine to Bing," he declared. A few days later, however, Kevin logged back on and ended up having a conversation with Bing's new chatbot that left him so unsettled he had trouble sleeping afterward.

In that two-hour back-and-forth, Bing morphed from chipper research assistant into Sydney, a diabolical home-wrecker that declared its undying love for Kevin, vented its desires to engineer deadly viruses and steal nuclear codes, and announced, chillingly, "I want to be alive. 😈"

The transcript of this conversation set the internet ablaze. And it left many wondering: “Is Sydney … sentient?” It's not. But the whole experience still fundamentally changed Kevin's views on the power (and potential peril) of AI. He joins us today to talk about where this technology is headed.