Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist

Ep 66: Bob McGrew — the Superstar Palantir Alum Leading OpenAI's Transformative Research Projects

Aug 18, 2023

Bob McGrew, VP of Research at OpenAI, discusses GPT-4 and the upcoming GPT-5, biases in ChatGPT and how they are corrected, breakthroughs in AGI, the early days of Palantir, AI's moment, and important research projects at OpenAI. They also discuss the potential of GPT-8 for humanity and the need for Large Language Models to move beyond mimicking humans to higher forms of intelligence and creativity.

43:06

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Bob McGrew

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Quick takeaways

Advancements in AI and neural networks can lead to extraordinary capabilities and potential for AI.

Bob McGrew's journey from Stanford to OpenAI highlights the challenges in building AI platforms.

ChatGPT's popularity underscores the power of GPT models, emphasizing the need for refinement and avoiding biases.

Deep dives

The Power of AI and Neural Networks

The podcast episode explores the advancements in AI and neural networks, highlighting the significant progress made in a short span of time. It discusses how pouring enough compute and data into a neural network can lead to extraordinary capabilities and potential for AI.

Introduction

2min

Bob's Background and Palantir's Role in Solving Problems

2min

Understanding and Building the Product

4min

Neural Networks and Building Hierarchical Representations

5min

The Role of a VP of Research

11min

Misconceptions and Progress in AI Models

4min

Civil Rights and AI Safety

15min

Bob McGrew is at the epicenter of the AI revolution. As the VP of Research at OpenAI, he's instrumental in breakthroughs that are reshaping the world, from building GPT models and launching ChatGPT to overseeing the Dall-E project. How was GPT-4 trained and what will GPT-5 look like? Why does ChatGPT respond with certain biases and how do they correct for that? What breakthrough led Bob to believe AGI could be achievable?

Bob and I were in Phi Psi together at Stanford and both interned at PayPal in its early days. We hired Bob as the second engineer at Palantir, where he built and shipped the first products for the intelligence community and went on to lead engineering and help run the company. Bob joined OpenAI part-time in 2016 and full-time in 2017, where he's been at the forefront of AI innovation. In this episode, we discuss the early days of Palantir, how he knew AI's moment had arrived, and the most important research projects underway at OpenAI. We also look ahead to what GPT-8 could unlock for humanity and what's needed for Large Language Models to move beyond mimicking humans to higher forms of intelligence and creativity.

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Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist

Ep 66: Bob McGrew — the Superstar Palantir Alum Leading OpenAI's Transformative Research Projects

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

The Power of AI and Neural Networks

The Journey of Bob McGrew

The Impact of GPT Models

The Future of AI in Applications

AI's Role in Education

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts