--- title: "OpenAI Confused by Why People Are So Impressed With ChatGPT" description: "Impressed by OpenAI's viral chatbot, ChatGPT? Cool, but the folks over at OpenAI aren't really sure why. To them, it's old news." date: "2023-03-05" modified: "2023-03-05" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-confused-people-impressed-chatgpt" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "chatgpt" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Confused by Why People Are So Impressed With ChatGPT ![Impressed by OpenAI's viral chatbot, ChatGPT? Cool, but the folks over at OpenAI aren't really sure why. To them, it's old news.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Overwhelmed Impressed by OpenAI's viral chatbot, ChatGPT? Cool — but the folks over at OpenAI aren't really sure why. "It's been overwhelming, honestly," Jan Lieke, leader of OpenAI's alignment team, [told the *MIT Technology Review*](). "I would love to understand better what's driving all of this — what's driving the virality." "Like, honestly, we don't understand," he added. "We don't know." Lieke isn't the only OpenAI-er who feels this way. Even company CEO Sam Altman, has publicly disparaged ChatGPT in the press, calling it a "[terrible product]()." ## Going Mainstream Several other OpenAI figures — company cofounder John Schulman, policy researcher Sandhini Agarwal, and AI research scientist Liam Fedus — joined the chorus. "I expected it to be intuitive for people, and I expected it to gain a following," Schulman told *MIT*, "but I didn't expect it to reach this level of mainstream popularity." "We were definitely surprised how well it was received," mused Fedus, with Agarwhal adding that "we work on these models so much, we forget how surprising they can be for the outside world sometimes." ## Hunk o' Junk Agarwhals's quip seems to hit the nail on the head. Though ChatGPT was only released a few months ago, the technology behind it has actually been around for [some time now](). The large language model (LLM) it was based on called GPT-3.5 and its predecessors have been [publicly available]() for a while. But the folks at OpenAI clearly weren't able to predict the chaos that ensued following the public release of ChatGPT. After all, these language models are notoriously unpredictable, forcing the company to roll with the punches. It's "very difficult to really anticipate what the real safety problems are going to be with these systems once you've deployed them," Lieke told *MIT*. "So we are putting a lot of emphasis on monitoring what people are using the system for, seeing what happens, and then reacting to that." "This is not to say that we shouldn't proactively mitigate safety problems when we do anticipate them," he added. "But yeah, it is very hard to foresee everything that will actually happen when a system hits the real world." **READ MORE:** *[The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it]()* \[*MIT Technology Review*\] **More on OpenAI bashing ChatGPT:** [*The CEO of OpenAI Says ChatGPT Is a "Horrible Product"* ]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()