Fresh from winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, the "Godfather of AI"University of Toronto, Canada, Professor Jeffrey Hinton (Geoffrey Hinton) said in a live group interview on Oct. 9, "I've had a lot of very smart students, much smarter than I am, who have done a lot of real work and had great careers. I'm particularly proud that one of my students fired (FIRE) Sam Altman."
Hinton mentioned that the student was none other than OpenAI Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI and one of the main protagonists in the OpenAI executive "court battle" at the end of 2023, and Sam Altman, CEO of the US AI company OpenAI, are the former chief scientists of OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI and one of the main protagonists in the OpenAI executive "court battle" at the end of 2023.
Last November, OpenAI's board of directors voted to fire then-CEO Altmann, and Sutskever, as OpenAI's chief scientist, delivered the news to Altmann via video call. Although Sutskever expressed regret afterward, Hinton seemed to think that firing Altmann was a victory for AI security. Altman, however, returned to the CEO position a few days later.
Hinton also addressed the issue of AI safety during the press conference. He said he is concerned that developments in AI could pose a threat to humans, and he called for more research into AI safety. "When we get things that are smarter than we are, no one really knows if we can control them," Hinton saidHe promised to work on advocating for AI safety rather than leading cutting-edge research.
Hinton also stated thatHe thinks it's unfortunate that Altman is more concerned with profits than safety.