‘Missing most technical nuance,’ OpenAI CEO on letter from techies for AI pause

Some tech leaders like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak signed a letter that calls for a six-month “AI research halt”. OpenAI launched an artificial intelligence-based chatbot ‘ChatGPT’ that can create human-like responses to questions asked by a user. 

Responding to the open letter from the Future of Life Institute signed by tech leaders, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the letter was “missing most technical nuance about where we need the pause", according to a report published by CNBC. 

Altman made the remarks during a video appearance at an MIT event on Thursday where he discussed artificial intelligence and business. 

“I think moving with caution and an increasing rigor for safety issues is really important. The letter I don’t think that was the optimal way to address it,” the OpenAI CEO said as quoted by the publication. 

However, he also agreed with the letter as capabilities get more and more serious and the safety bar has got to be increased. 

The letter backed by Elon Musk and other techies stated that AI labs along with independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop a set of shared safety protocols for advanced artificial intelligence design and development that are rigorously audited by independent outside experts, CNBC reported. 

Earlier in March this year, Altman admitted that he is a little bit scared of the potential of the AI chatbot. “We've got to be careful here. I think people should be happy that we are a little bit scared of this.”

He further said, "I'm particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation. Now that they're getting better at writing computer code, [they] could be used for offensive cyberattacks."

The OpenAI CEO added that ChatGPT is a tool that is ‘very much in human control.’