--- title: "OpenAI Chief Scientist: Should We Make Godlike AI That Loves Us, or Obeys Us?" description: "A leading artificial intelligence expert is once again shooting from the hip in a cryptic Twitter poll that stokes the sentient AI debate he helped create." date: "2022-09-16" modified: "2022-09-16" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-chief-scientist-ai-loves-obeys" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artifical intelligence" - "elon musk" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Chief Scientist: Should We Make Godlike AI That Loves Us, or Obeys Us? ![A leading artificial intelligence expert is once again shooting from the hip in a cryptic Twitter poll that stokes the sentient AI debate he helped create.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## AI Provocateur A leading artificial intelligence expert is once again shooting from the hip in a cryptic Twitter poll. In the poll, OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever [asked his followers]() whether advanced super-AIs should be made "deeply obedient" to their human creators, or if these godlike algorithms should "truly deeply \[love\] humanity." In other words, he seems to be pondering whether we should treat superintelligences like pets — or the other way around. And that's interesting, coming from the head researcher at the firm behind [GPT-3]() and [DALL-E](), two of the most impressive machine learning systems available today. https://twitter.com/ilyasut/status/1570558118660313089 ## Cursed Timeline This kind of provocative question is salient coming from Sutskever, a researcher who could well be credited with stoking this year's sentient AI debate months before a Google engineer briefly broke the internet by [claiming one of the company's algorithms had gained sentience](). Back in February, the OpenAI chief scientist and cofounder [pissed off a bunch of his fellow nerds]() by claiming, [with neither follow-up nor receipts](), that "it may be that today's large neural networks are slightly conscious." Since then, there's pretty much been radio silence from Sutskever about the debate, which flashed in the pan and died out just as quickly before Google [fired engineer Blake Lemoine]() for going public with his belief that the mega-company had [created a sentient AI](). ## Maybe, Maybe Not By and large, most folks in the machine learning community dismissed the concept of AIs gaining sentience anytime soon, though [there were detractors]() beyond the most famous one [from Google](). Among the potential believers, or at least the agnostic, is Sutskever's fellow OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk, who in January claimed that [Tesla's apparently-forthcoming humanoid robots]() could be part of the wave that brings forth artificial general intelligence (AGI), though as others pointed out, [it's wildly unlikely]() that the world's richest man is going to be selling robots, sentient or otherwise, anytime soon. Because we've been unable to get in touch with Sutskever, we're left to rely on his Twitter feed for clues about what he's really thinking — and it may well be months before we hear any more controversial peeps out of him. **More on AGI:** *[Google Says It's Closing in On Human-Level Artificial Intelligence]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()