Artificial Intelligence (AI) in General

[RTH10260]

OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board
AI firm’s board said Altman was ‘not consistently candid in his communications with the board’ and had lost its confidence

Blake Montgomery and Dani Anguiano
Fri 17 Nov 2023 23.03 CET

Sam Altman, the chief executive and co-founder of OpenAI, was ousted for allegedly lying to the board of his company, according to an announcement issued Friday.

The board “no longer has confidence in his ability to lead” and said new leadership is “necessary” as the company moves forward, OpenAI said in a statement posted on its website. He is likewise leaving the company’s board.

“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” the board’s statement said. What Altman had allegedly hidden from his company’s board was not clear.




https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... tman-fired

[RTH10260]

OpenAI investors push for return of ousted CEO Sam Altman
Boss was sacked by ChatGPT developer over failure to be ‘candid in his communications’
Altman ‘was working on new venture’ before sacking
Opinion: Altman was trusted face of AI. His firm is more complex

Dan Milmo Global technology editor
Sun 19 Nov 2023 11.31 CET

Sam Altman is being lined up for a surprise return as the chief executive of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI amid pressure from investors to reverse his surprise ousting.

Altman was fired by the company board on Friday, citing a failure to be “candid in his communications”, in a move that shocked Silicon Valley.

However, OpenAI’s investors – who include Microsoft – are pushing for his reinstatement, according to reports.

On Saturday, the Information, a tech news website, reported that OpenAI was “optimistic” it could bring back Altman.

The report quoted a memo from the company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, telling staff that an effort was under way to bring back Altman and other senior colleagues who had left. Altman’s departure was followed by the resignations of Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, and three senior researchers: Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry and Szymon Sidor.

“We are still working towards a resolution and we remain optimistic,” Kwon wrote, according to the Information. “By resolution, we mean bringing back Sam, Greg, Jakub, Szymon, Aleksander and other colleagues (sorry if I missed you!) and remaining the place where people who want to work on AGI [artificial general intelligence] research, safety, products and policy can do their best work.”

Kwon said the California-based company hoped to update staff further on Sunday. Early on Sunday, Altman posted on X: “i love the openai team so much”.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Altman is considering a return but has told shareholders he wants a new board and governance structure as a precondition, while he balances the option of starting a new company with former OpenAI colleagues. The WSJ said Altman was set to decide between the two options this weekend.

Altman and Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive have been discussing building a new AI hardware device, according to reports. It was also reported that the SoftBank chief executive, Masayoshi Son, had been involved in the conversation.



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... an-chatgpt

[RTH10260]

Microsoft hires former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Tech company creates advanced new artificial intelligence team as Twitch’s Emmett Shear joins OpenAI

Dan Milmo and Josh Taylor
Mon 20 Nov 2023 10.55 CET

Microsoft has hired Sam Altman as head of a new advanced artificial intelligence team after attempts to reinstate him as chief executive of OpenAI failed.

The appointment was confirmed in a statement on X by the Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, on Monday.

At the end of a dramatic weekend of boardroom drama, the non-profit board of the San Francisco-based OpenAI has installed Emmett Shear, the co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, as the company’s third CEO in three days.

Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, has moved quickly to take on a key figure in the AI industry. It said on Monday morning it had appointed Altman and OpenAI’s former president, Greg Brockman, to lead a new advanced AI team at the company.

“We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,” wrote Nadella.





https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ear-twitch

[RTH10260]

OpenAI staff threaten to quit en masse unless Sam Altman is reinstated
More than 600 employees demand resignation of board after shock firing of chief executive

Dan Milmo and Blake Montgomery
Tue 21 Nov 2023 00.46 CET

Turmoil has engulfed the company behind ChatGPT after hundreds of OpenAI staff members threatened to quit en masse unless the board overseeing the business reinstates its ousted chief executive, Sam Altman, and steps down.

In an open letter, nearly all of OpenAI’s 700 employees demanded the resignation of the board and said they may walk out if Altman is not brought back.

Altman was fired on Friday in a move that shocked Silicon Valley, riled the company’s employees and put rival tech companies on alert for a talent exodus.

Monday’s letter to OpenAI’s four remaining board directors said: “Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment and care for our mission and employees.” The board’s members have yet to comment publicly.

The letter added that the signatories could join Altman and OpenAI’s former president Greg Brockman at Microsoft after the US tech company announced on Monday it had hired the duo to head a new AI research unit. On Monday evening, however, the Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, said he was open to Altman staying at OpenAI or joining Microsoft. Either way, the executive told Bloomberg TV, OpenAI’s governance structure needed to change. Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest shareholder.

“We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman,” the employees wrote. “We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign … and [reinstate] Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.” The letter was first reported by the tech magazine Wired and the journalist Kara Swisher.

After the letter became public, OpenAI employees began tweeting “OpenAI is nothing without its people” in a show of solidarity. One AI researcher, Noam, wrote on X: “Everyone at @OpenAI is united. This is not a civil war. Unless Sam and Greg are brought back, there will be no OpenAI left to govern.”



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... tman-board

[Foggy]

I hate to say this, but I kind of want Microsoft to be running the joint, and I'm no fan of Microsoft. AI can be dangerous, and with Microsoft you at least get the feeling that some grownups are in charge of things. Right now, today, it doesn't look like the grownups are in charge of OpenAI.

[RTH10260]

Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI
New board announces ‘agreement in principle’ for return of former CEO after campaign by staff and investors

Dan Milmo Global technology editor
Wed 22 Nov 2023 08.07 CET

Sam Altman is to return as chief executive of OpenAI after the ChatGPT developer said it had “reached an agreement in principle” for his reinstatement.

The San Francisco-based company made the announcement after days of internal turmoil after Altman’s surprise sacking on Friday. Nearly all of OpenAI’s 750-strong workforce had threatened to resign unless the board overseeing the business brought him back and then quit immediately afterwards.

As part of the agreement reached overnight, the deal includes the establishment of a new-look board chaired by Bret Taylor, the former co-chief executive of software firm Salesforce. It will include the former US treasury secretary Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo, the tech entrepreneur and current board member who played a role in Altman’s firing.



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... rd-chatgpt

[keith]

I hate to say this, but I kind of want Microsoft to be running the joint, and I'm no fan of Microsoft. AI can be dangerous, and with Microsoft you at least get the feeling that some grownups are in charge of things. Right now, today, it doesn't look like the grownups are in charge of OpenAI.

100%

[GlimDropper]

Insurer Sued for Using Bad AI to Deny Claims

[neeneko]

Insurer Sued for Using Bad AI to Deny Claims

This could be one of the most important cases in our lifetime.... or one like it at least.

The whole appeal of using AI in decision making is the layer of authority flavored insulation from your actions. The dream of dreams is to be able to shop around (or configure) an AI to give you the answers you want but not be liable for those answers since they did not actually create them. The perfect workaround to avoid anti-discrimation laws and start redlining openly again.

[Mr brolin]

Sat on a panel of Info Security folks last night and after hearing a plethora of breathless sales content driven pitches around the wonders of AI, I eventually lost the will to be polite and stated that.....

1. AI currently stands for .... AIn't..... They are basically jumped up versions of ELIZA ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA ) and there won't be "real AI" until the first AI ends up on death row in Texas for corporate manslaughter.

2. The current verions of LLM's is such that they should not be called Artificial Intelligence but more accurately Accelerated Intellectual Property Theft Engines .

Most folks laughed like drains although a few bug eyed evangelists obviously wanted to shout "Kill the heretic".....





Then much alcohol was consumed .......

[pipistrelle]

2. The current verions of LLM's is such that they should not be called Artificial Intelligence but more accurately Accelerated Intellectual Property Theft Engines .

This is a great way of putting it.

[keith]

2. The current verions of LLM's is such that they should not be called Artificial Intelligence but more accurately Accelerated Intellectual Property Theft Engines .

This is a great way of putting it.

[Flatpoint High]

2. The current verions of LLM's is such that they should not be called Artificial Intelligence but more accurately Accelerated Intellectual Property Theft Engines .

This is a great way of putting it.

Yeah, That.png (62.71 KiB) Viewed 6311 times

[neeneko]

Sat on a panel of Info Security folks last night and after hearing a plethora of breathless sales content driven pitches around the wonders of AI, I eventually lost the will to be polite and stated that.....

1. AI currently stands for .... AIn't..... They are basically jumped up versions of ELIZA ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA ) and there won't be "real AI" until the first AI ends up on death row in Texas for corporate manslaughter.

Eliza had more AI in it than LLMs do....

[chancery]

For Sports Illustrated, Report About Fake Authors Is Latest Stumble
The venerable magazine has experienced management upheaval and staff complaints in recent years. Now there’s a question over who wrote product reviews on its site.

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/busi ... =url-share

Pretty clear it was AI, or as member Mr. brolin aptly puts it, "AIn't."

[RTH10260]

when you lack intelligence to use artificial intelligence ...

Arena Group fires CEO in wake of Sports Illustrated AI articles scandal
Ross Levinsohn sacking was to ‘improve the operational efficiency and revenue of the company’, says board, two weeks after fake authors exposed

Josh Taylor
Tue 12 Dec 2023 05.05 CET

The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has fired the magazine’s CEO not long after it was revealed Sports Illustrated had published articles written by fake authors with AI-generated headshots and biographies.

The Arena Group’s board announced on Monday that CEO Ross Levinsohn had his employment terminated, with Manoj Bhargava named as interim chief executive. The board said it followed a meeting on actions to “improve the operational efficiency and revenue of the company”.

The release did not mention the AI scandal from November, which was spurred by an investigative report published by the science and technology news publication Futurism.

Among fake profiles uncovered by Futurism was that of purported author “Sora Tanaka” which claims she is a product reviewer. The page said: “Sora has always been a fitness guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks. Ms Tanaka is thrilled to bring her fitness and nutritional expertise to the Product Reviews Team, and promises to bring you nothing but the best of the best.”



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... i-articles

[RTH10260]

nippet from the original research reporting article

But the magazine is also facing criticism for its non-commercial articles allegedly written by AI.

One article about volleyball carried the byline of “Drew Ortiz”. But, like in Sora Tanaka’s case, no Drew Ortiz exists – his biography and headshot were apparently made up by AI, Futurism found.

The Ortiz article in question contained copy that said: “Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world, and for good reason. It’s fast-paced, has a high skill ceiling, and is generally an exciting sport to both play and watch. Even people who don’t watch sports can easily understand the intensity and skill required to play volleyball whenever they watch clips. There’s a reason why it’s been such a mainstay in modern sports to this day.”

in https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/ ... ai-writers

[raison de arizona]

IMG_6674.png (106.9 KiB) Viewed 5864 times

IMG_6675.png (93.48 KiB) Viewed 5864 times

[Foggy]

[pipistrelle]

Elon Musk promised an anti-‘woke’ chatbot. It’s not going as planned.

Decrying what he saw as the liberal bias of ChatGPT, Elon Musk earlier this year announced plans to create an artificial intelligence chatbot of his own. In contrast to AI tools built by OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, which are trained to tread lightly around controversial topics, Musk’s would be edgy, unfiltered and anti-“woke,” meaning it wouldn’t hesitate to give politically incorrect responses.

That’s turning out to be trickier than he thought.

Two weeks after the Dec. 8 launch of Grok to paid subscribers of X, formerly Twitter, Musk is fielding complaints from the political right that the chatbot gives liberal responses to questions about diversity programs, transgender rights and inequality.

“I’ve been using Grok as well as ChatGPT a lot as research assistants,” posted Jordan Peterson, the socially conservative psychologist and YouTube personality, Wednesday. The former is “near as woke as the latter,” he said.

Reality bites, Musk.

[RTH10260]

After cryprocurrencies blasted for energy consumption, this ...

Why AI is a disaster for the climate
Amid all the hysteria about ChatGPT and co, one thing is being missed: how energy-intensive the technology is

John Naughton
Sat 23 Dec 2023 17.00 CET

What to do when surrounded by people who are losing their minds about the Newest New Thing? Answer: reach for the Gartner Hype Cycle, an ingenious diagram that maps the progress of an emerging technology through five phases: the “technology trigger”, which is followed by a rapid rise to the “peak of inflated expectations”; this is succeeded by a rapid decline into the “trough of disillusionment”, after which begins a gentle climb up the “slope of enlightenment” – before eventually (often years or decades later) reaching the “plateau of productivity”.

Given the current hysteria about AI, I thought I’d check to see where it is on the chart. It shows that generative AI (the polite term for ChatGPT and co) has just reached the peak of inflated expectations. That squares with the fevered predictions of the tech industry (not to mention governments) that AI will be transformative and will soon be ubiquitous. This hype has given rise to much anguished fretting about its impact on employment, misinformation, politics etc, and also to a deal of anxious extrapolations about an existential risk to humanity.

All of this serves the useful function – for the tech industry, at least – of diverting attention from the downsides of the technology that we are already experiencing: bias, inscrutability, unaccountability and its tendency to “hallucinate”, to name just four. And, in particular, the current moral panic also means that a really important question is missing from public discourse: what would a world suffused with this technology do to the planet? Which is worrying because its environmental impact will, at best, be significant and, at worst, could be really problematic.

How come? Basically, because AI requires staggering amounts of computing power. And since computers require electricity, and the necessary GPUs (graphics processing units) run very hot (and therefore need cooling), the technology consumes electricity at a colossal rate. Which, in turn, means CO2 emissions on a large scale – about which the industry is extraordinarily coy, while simultaneously boasting about using offsets and other wheezes to mime carbon neutrality.

The implication is stark: the realisation of the industry’s dream of “AI everywhere” (as Google’s boss once put it) would bring about a world dependent on a technology that is not only flaky but also has a formidable – and growing – environmental footprint. Shouldn’t we be paying more attention to this?



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... logy/quote]

[RTH10260]

The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work
Millions of articles from The New York Times were used to train chatbots that now compete with it, the lawsuit said.

By Michael M. Grynbaum and Ryan Mac
Dec. 27, 2023

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement on Wednesday, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies.

The Times is the first major American media organization to sue the companies, the creators of ChatGPT and other popular A.I. platforms, over copyright issues associated with its written works. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends that millions of articles published by The Times were used to train automated chatbots that now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information.

The suit does not include an exact monetary demand. But it says the defendants should be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It also calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The Times.

In its complaint, The Times said it approached Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise concerns about the use of its intellectual property and explore “an amicable resolution,” possibly involving a commercial agreement and “technological guardrails” around generative A.I. products. But it said the talks had not produced a resolution.

An OpenAI spokeswoman, Lindsey Held, said in a statement that the company had been “moving forward constructively” in conversations with The Times and that it was “surprised and disappointed” by the lawsuit.

“We respect the rights of content creators and owners and are committed to working with them to ensure they benefit from A.I. technology and new revenue models,” Ms. Held said. “We’re hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work together, as we are doing with many other publishers.”

Microsoft declined to comment on the case.




https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/busi ... wsuit.html

[RTH10260]

How AI Discovered a Faster Matrix Multiplication Algorithm

Quanta Magazine
22 May 2023

Researchers at Google research lab DeepMind trained an AI system called AlphaTensor to find new, faster algorithms to tackle an age-old math problem: matrix multiplication. Advances in matrix multiplication could lead to breakthroughs in physics, engineering and computer science.

AlphaTensor quickly rediscovered - and surpassed, for some cases - the reigning algorithm discovered by German mathematician Volker Strassen in 1969. However, mathematicians soon took inspiration from the results of the game-playing neural network to make advances of their own.

Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-revea ... -20221123/

Correction: At 2:53 in the video, the text previously read "67% less" but has been changed to "67%" for accuracy.

00:00 What is matrix multiplication?
01:06 The standard algorithm for multiplying matrices
02:06 Strassen's faster algorithm for faster matrix multiplication methods
03:55 DeepMind AlphaGo beats a human
04:28 DeepMind uses AI system AlphaTensor to search for new algorithms
05:18 A computer helps prove the four color theorem
06:17 What is a tensor?
07:16 Tensor decomposition explained
08:48 AlphaTensor discovers new and faster faster matrix multiplication algorithms
11:09 Mathematician Manuel Kauers improves on AlphaTensor's results

[RTH10260]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEChatGPT Violated European Privacy Laws, Italy Tells Chatbot Maker OpenAI
Italian regulators told OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated GDPR.

ByAssociated Press
January 30, 2024

OpenAI GDPR Violation

Italian regulators said they told OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated European Union’s stringent data privacy rules.

The country’s data protection authority, known as Garante, said Monday that it notified San Francisco-based OpenAI of breaches of the EU rules, known as General Data Protection Regulation.

The watchdog started investigating ChatGPT last year, when it temporarily banned within Italy the chatbot that can produce text, images and sound in response to users’ questions.

Based on the results of its “fact-finding activity,” the watchdog said it “concluded that the available evidence pointed to the existence of breaches of the provisions” in the EU privacy rules.

OpenAI has 30 days to reply to the allegations. It didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment. The company said last year that it fulfilled a raft of conditions that the Garante demanded to get the ChatGPT ban lifted.

The watchdog had imposed the ban after finding that some users’ messages and payment information were exposed and because ChatGPT didn’t have a system to verify users’ ages, allowing children to get answers from the AI tool that were inappropriate for their age.

It also questioned whether there was a legal basis for OpenAI to collect massive amounts of data used to train ChatGPT’s algorithms and raised concerns that the system could sometimes generate false information about individuals.



https://www.securityweek.com/chatgpt-vi ... er-openai/

[RTH10260]

Bruce Schneier predicts a future of AI-powered mass spying: Lock and Code S05E03

Posted: January 29, 2024
by Malwarebytes Labs

If the internet helped create the era of mass surveillance, then artificial intelligence will bring about an era of mass spying.

That’s the latest prediction from noted cryptographer and computer security professional Bruce Schneier, who, in December, shared a vision of the near future where artificial intelligence—AI—will be able to comb through reams of surveillance data to answer the types of questions that, previously, only humans could.

“Spying is limited by the need for human labor,” Schneier wrote. “AI is about to change that.”

As theorized by Schneier, if fed enough conversations, AI tools could spot who first started a rumor online, identify who is planning to attend a political protest (or unionize a workforce), and even who is plotting a crime.

But “there’s so much more,” Schneier said.

“To uncover an organizational structure, look for someone who gives similar instructions to a group of people, then all the people they have relayed those instructions to. To find people’s confidants, look at whom they tell secrets to. You can track friendships and alliances as they form and break, in minute detail. In short, you can know everything about what everybody is talking about.”

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Bruce Schneier about artificial intelligence, Soviet era government surveillance, personal spyware, and why companies will likely leap at the opportunity to use AI on their customers.



https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/podca ... ode-s05e03