Unveiling OpenAI Q*: A Pivotal Threat to Humanity?

Sam Altman, who had his employment terminated on November 17, was reinstated just five days later when a collective threat of resignations from employees prompted the board. According to the Reuters report, “commercializing advances before understanding the consequences” was one of the reasons for Altman’s initial firing. Some reports also claim that the reason behind his firing was Project Q* of OpenAI.

As for Q*, it’s an area of intense curiosity at OpenAI. According to Reuters, many within the organization consider Q* (or Q-Star) as a potential breakthrough in their pursuit of ‘artificial general intelligence’ (AGI). AGI is described as autonomous systems capable of surpassing humans in most economically valuable tasks.

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), confirmed the existence of Q* in an internal email to employees, addressing ‘certain media stories’ but refraining from verifying their accuracy.

When it comes to the abilities of AGI, it can solve certain mathematical problems. Unlike a calculator, AGI isn’t confined to specific operations; it can generalize, learn, and understand.

Concerns raised to the board highlighted both the remarkable AI capabilities of the model and the potential risks it poses. Although the exact safety concerns weren’t specified. The discussions among computer scientists often revolve around the dangers associated with highly intelligent machines. For example, scenarios where these machines might perceive ‘the destruction of humanity’ as being in their interest.

The letter also expressed apprehension about the ‘AI scientist team’ resulting from the merger of the ‘Code Gen’ and ‘Math Gen’ groups. This combined team is focusing on optimizing existing AI models to enhance their reasoning. Eventually, it will enable them to perform scientific tasks.

See Also: Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Joins Microsoft