In a recent TED Talk interview, Helen Toner, a former OpenAI board member and researcher at the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies, explained that the reason for firing Sam Altman last year was that he did not explain many things truthfully. Even the news of the launch of services such as ChatGPT was not known until it was spread through online social media platforms.
Helen Toner said that the board of directors believed that Sam Altman had concealed facts, distorted the truth, and even concealed some situations from the board of directors, such as concealing his holdings in OpenAI venture funds, making it difficult for the board of directors to fulfill its supervisory responsibilities. Therefore, in October last year, they began to discuss whether to ask Sam Altman to leave OpenAI.
On the other hand, Helen Toner also said that Sam Altman often provided incorrect information to the board of directors, making it difficult for the board to make corresponding adjustments to the security measures behind OpenAI's service implementation.
Recently, Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, and Jan Leike, head of the security team, who were originally part of the security team, have left, effectively disbanding the original security team. OpenAI earlier announced the establishment ofNew Safety CommitteeHowever, the members include Bret Taylor, chairman of the OpenAI board of directors, and board members including Nicole Seligman and Adam D'Angelo, as well as CEO Sam Altman. Therefore, it is questionable whether this safety committee is only established in formality and may not be able to play a substantive supervisory role.
However, OpenAI emphasized in a related statement that this safety committee will conduct an assessment within the next 90 days and decide on relevant regulations and safeguards. It emphasized that it will have further discussions with the board of directors and will publicly share the actual adopted practices in a form that complies with safety and security to ensure that OpenAI's artificial intelligence will maintain a safe development direction in the future.
Regarding Helen Toner's comments during the interview, OpenAI later responded that the previous board decision to fire Sam Altman was not based on considerations of product safety, development speed, or company finances, or concerns about statements to investors, customers, or business partners, but was based on the conclusions of an independent review.
What has *really* been happening at OpenAI? Former board member @hlntnr and host @bilawalsidhu take a peek behind the curtain — plus the future of government regulation of AI. Listen to The TED AI Show on @AmazonMusic or wherever you get your podcasts: https://t.co/wZh1JsVy7m pic.twitter.com/kc31ElaZiC
— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) May 28, 2024
