Sam Altman.
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Sam Altman spoke about a technical advancement at OpenAI the day before he was fired.Reuters reports that staff researchers wrote to the board, warning of a breakthrough that could harm humanity.A project called Q* has staff optimistic about achieving AGI, per Reuters.
Before Sam Altman was fired, some OpenAI researchers wrote a letter to the board warning of a breakthrough that could harm humanity, Reuters reported.
At a summit the day before Altman was ousted, he spoke about a technical advancement at the company that would “push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward.”
According to Reuters, a powerful AI discovery prompted several staff researchers to warn the board.
Reuters said it hadn’t reviewed a copy of the letter. And one person told The Verge that the board didn’t receive such a letter.
Although Reuters reports that after it contacted OpenAI, the company internally acknowledged the existence of a letter to the board, and a project called called Q*. An OpenAI spokesperson told the news agency that this message was only alerting staff to the report, and not commenting on its accuracy.
The Information also reported details about the project.
Some OpenAI staff believe that Q* could be major breakthrough in the company’s goal of achieving AGI — which the company defines autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically viable tasks — per Reuters.
With extensive computing resources, Q* was able to solve math problems, which were on a grade-school level but researchers are very optimistic because it aced them, Reuters reported.
Reuters’ two sources said Q* and the letter were among the factors that prompted the board to oust Altman last Friday.
Following his termination, over 700 of OpenAI’s 770 staff signed a letter on Monday threatening to leave for Microsoft if he wasn’t reinstated.
Altman was brought back on Tuesday night.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, sent outside US working hours.
