Prime-time AI: Sam Altman gives Oprah an open AI primer

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence and the future of the relationship between humans and computers in an in-depth conversation with TV and film icon Oprah Winfrey on Thursday.

In one of several interviews for Winfrey's Primetime special “AI and Our Future,” Altman shed light on the transformative potential of this technology, as well as the critical challenges developers and policymakers must face.

“Four years ago, most of the world, if they knew about AI, they thought about self-driving cars or something,” he told Winfrey. “The first time people said, ‘Okay, this ChatGPT thing, this computer talks to me, now that's new,' was only in 2022. And since then, if you look at how much better it's gotten, it's a huge improvement,” he said.

Altman called it the “next phase of computing” that allows computers to understand, predict and interact with human operators.

“We've figured out how to make computers smarter, more intelligent, more intuitive, and more useful,” he said.

Asked to explain how ChatGPT works, Altman went back to the basics, saying that the core of ChatGPT's power lies in its ability to predict the next word in a sequence, a skill developed by training on large amounts of text data.

“The most basic step is showing the system 1,000 words in a sequence and asking it to predict the next word, and doing that over and over again,” he explained, working in a text message while the smartphone tries to predict the next one. “The system learns to predict, and in there, it learns basic concepts.”

During the segment, Winfrey explained that the lack of trust caused a major shakeup at OpenAI in 2022. In November of that year, Altman was abruptly fired as CEO of OpenAI, citing the board's lack of confidence in Altman's leadership—though he was reinstated a week later.

“So the bar on this is obviously extremely high — the best thing we can do is get this technology into people's hands,” Altman said. “Talk about what's possible, what's not, talk about what we think will come, talk about what we think might come, and give good advice on how society should decide to use it. [AI]He said.

We also think it's important not to let go of anything we can do wrong and to build trust over time, but it's clear that this is going to be a very useful technology, and I think a lot of testing is very important. ” he added.

One of the concerns raised during the interview was the importance of diversity in the AI ​​industry, with Winfrey pointing out that the field is largely dominated by white men.

“We really want everyone to see themselves in our products,” Altman said. “We want the industry's workforce to be more diverse than it is, and there's slower progress than we'd like, but there's progress there,” he said of his commitment to ensuring the benefits of AI. Accessible to all.

Altman said he speaks with members of the US government — from the White House to Congress — several times a week, and highlighted OpenAI's collaboration with policymakers on safe artificial intelligence.

Last month, OpenAI and Anthropic announced a formal partnership with the US AI Safety Institute (AISI). Under the agreement, the institute will have access to new ChatGPT and Cloud models from each company before and after their official release.

Altman said collaboration between AI developers and policy makers is critical, as is testing the safety of AI models.

“Partnerships between companies in developing this technology and managing it are very important. One of the first things to do, and that's what's happening right now, is to get governments to know how to do safety tests on these systems — like we do for airplanes or new drugs or things like that,” Altman said. . “And then I think, if we can be good now, we'll have an easier time figuring out exactly what the regulatory framework is later.”

When Winfrey told Altman that he had been called the most powerful and possibly the most dangerous man on the planet, the CEO pushed back.

“I don't feel like a very powerful person or anything close to that,” he said. “The opportunity to point this in a direction that I think could be very good for people – I feel a positive sense of responsibility.”

“It's hard, it's fun, it's a little bit nerve-wracking, but it's something that's very deep for me, and I know I'm never going to touch something this important again,” Altman added.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.