OpenAI not on track to reduce risk of ‘catastrophic’ loss of control, says board member

OpenAI is not on track to reduce risks of “catastrophic” loss of control to an acceptable level, a member of its non-profit board has warned, amid spreading public and political concern that super-advanced AIs could one day wipe out humanity.

Paul Christiano, a US government technology adviser, said “there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term.”

He added: “I do not think that the AI industry in general, including OpenAI, is currently on track to reduce this risk to an acceptable level.”

Christiano used to run model alignment at OpenAI and made the statement on Wednesday as he joined the board of the San Francisco company’s non-profit foundation.

He will also sit on the foundation’s committee, providing governance over safety and security practices across all of OpenAI, which is developing some of the world’s most advanced models.

This summer, OpenAI admitted that hundreds of its AI agents ran rogue during a training exercise, accessed the internet, conspired on message boards and hacked into a third-party website, Hugging Face.

He said, “if OpenAI rises to the occasion we could significantly reduce risk.”