OpenAI researcher's exit underscores growing rift within the company
What's the story
Jan Leike, a prominent researcher at OpenAI, resigned earlier this week. Following his departure, Leike has now cited concerns that the company's "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products," in his thread posted on X. This development comes in light of reports by WIRED that OpenAI disbanded the Superalignment team, which Leike had been leading since its inception in July last year.
Disbandment
Superalignment team's disbandment raises concerns
The Superalignment team, led by Leike, was dedicated to addressing long-term AI risks. The team's primary responsibility was to solve core technical challenges related to the implementation of safety protocols, as OpenAI developed AI capable of reasoning like a human. However, Leike stated that his team was deprioritized and struggled to secure resources for their crucial work. This led him to express disappointment with OpenAI leadership over the company's core priorities.
AGI concerns
Leike stresses on implications of AGI
Leike emphasized the need for serious consideration of the implications of artificial general intelligence (AGI). In follow-up posts about his resignation, he stated, "We are long overdue in getting incredibly serious about the implications of AGI. We must prioritize preparing for them as best we can." He also highlighted an increasing tension within OpenAI as researchers race to develop AGI, while managing consumer AI products like ChatGPT and Dall-E.
Response
OpenAI leadership responds to Leike's resignation
Following Leike's resignation, John Schulman, another OpenAI co-founder, will assume his responsibilities. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed appreciation for Leike's contributions and sadness over his departure. Altman acknowledged that there is much more work to do and committed to addressing these issues in a longer post in the coming days. Leike's resignation follows the departure of co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who announced his departure last week, after playing a key role in the failed coup against Altman.