--- title: "OpenAI Researcher Quits, Flames Company for Axing Team Working to Prevent Superintelligent AI From Turning Against Humankind" description: "Terminator Prequel It might sound like a joke, but OpenAI has dissolved the team responsible for making sure advanced AI doesn't turn against humankind. Yes, you heard that right. The objective of the team, formed just last summer, was to \"steer and control AI systems much smarter than us.\" \"To solve this problem within four […]" date: "2024-05-18" modified: "2024-05-18" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-researcher-quits-criticism-superallignment" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "OpenAI" - "sam altman" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Researcher Quits, Flames Company for Axing Team Working to Prevent Superintelligent AI From Turning Against Humankind ![It might sound like a joke, but OpenAI has dissolved the team responsible for making sure advanced AI doesn't turn against humankind.]() *Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI participates in the "Charting the Path Forward: The Future of Artificial Intelligence" at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week in San Francisco, California, on November 16, 2023. The APEC Summit takes place through November 17. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) \Image: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images\* ## OpenAI Shut It might sound like a joke, but OpenAI has dissolved the team responsible for making sure advanced AI doesn't turn against humankind. Yes, you read that right. The objective of the team, [formed just last summer](), was to "steer and control AI systems much smarter than us." "To solve this problem within four years, we’re starting a new team, co-led by Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, and dedicating 20 percent of the compute we’ve secured to date to this effort," the company wrote at the time. "We’re looking for excellent ML researchers and engineers to join us." If those two names sound familiar, it's because Sutskever [departed the company]() under a dark cloud this week, prompting Leike to [quit in disgust](). And now the other shoe has dropped: as [first reported by *Wired*](), the entire team has now been dissolved. ## Terminator Prequel Sutskever, who was [intimately involved]() with last year's plot to out OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has remained largely mum this week. But Leike has been publicly sounding off. "I joined because I thought OpenAI would be the best place in the world to do this research," he [wrote on X-formerly-Twitter](). "However, I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company's core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point." Among his gripes: that the company wasn't living up to its promises to dedicate technical resources to the effort. "Over the past few months my team has been sailing against the wind," he [continued](). "Sometimes we were struggling for compute and it was getting harder and harder to get this crucial research done." But his objections also sound more existential than just company politics. "Building smarter-than-human machines is an inherently dangerous endeavor," [Leike wrote](). "OpenAI is shouldering an enormous responsibility on behalf of all of humanity." "But over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products," he [alleged](). OpenAI, for its part, has been busy doing exactly that: this week, it [showed off a new version of ChatGPT]() that can respond to live video through a user's smartphone camera in an emotionally inflected voice that Altman [compared to the 2013 romantic tragedy "Her]()." "It’s a process of trust collapsing bit by bit, like dominoes falling one by one," one OpenAI employee [told *Vox*](). **More on OpenAI:** [*The Person Who Was in Charge of OpenAI's $175 Million Fund Appears to Be Fake*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()