Was Sam Altman Fired Because of Fears of Advanced AI

Sam Altman – Credit Chen Galili

We may now know the real reason why the OpenAI board ousted Sam Altman last week from the company he founded. That is, ousted him for five days before the board members themselves were removed and Altman made a stunning return.

So, why was Sam Altman fired? Well, it may have been related to some sort of major breakthrough OpenAI made in artificial technology.

According to a report made by Reuters, a group of OpenAI researchers had written to the company’s board to express concerns over its developments in artificial intelligence. Apparently, the board was concerned over what it felt was a lack of concern on the part of Sam Altman as to the possible consequences related to the expansion of the abilities of AI.

Reuters cited a project called Q* and a letter sent to the OpenAI board before Sam Altman’s firing. An OpenAI spokesperson said that the message, sent by long-time executive Mira Murati, “alerted staff to certain media stories without commenting on their accuracy.”

Some people at the company believe that Q* (pronounced Q-Star) could be the major breakthrough in artificial general intelligence (AGI) that OpenAI has been working to achieve, said Reuters. OpenAI defines AGI as autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.

So, the issue here is the classic question of should vs could – should an advanced technology be developed and put into use simply because it could be? Shouldn’t its developers be concerned with what could be done with such technologies?

This s the type of argument used to criticize the people who created the first atomic bomb. The other side of the argument is, however, that if something is possible hen it is only a matter of time before someone develops it anyway.

Basically, people are concerned that AI could end up being as bad as it is depicted in classic movies like “The Terminator” and “The Matrix.”