Sam Altman Admits OpenAI's Mistakes and Urges for New Open-Source Strategy

OpenAI recently conducted a Question-and-Answer (Q&A) session on Reddit, discussing topics like its advancements in the AI sector, future plans, product launches, and other related matters. Previously, in November, they had a similar interactive event where their CEO, Sam Altman, suggested that the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) milestone could be reached using existing hardware technology.

AMA with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Mark Chen, Kevin Weil, Srinivas Narayanan, Michelle Pokrass, and Hongyu Ren from r/OpenAI

The meeting featured key figures from OpenAI, such as its CEO Sam Altman, Chief Revenue Officer Mark Chen, Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil, Engineering Vice President Srinivas Narayanan, API Research Leader Michelle Pokrass, and Head of Research Hongyu Ren.

In case you missed it, an executive from OpenAI recently disclosed a wealth of information during a concluded Q&A session about their future development plans, strategies, and projected release dates for eagerly awaited products. Here’s the rundown on what was discussed in OpenAI’s latest AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit:

Sam Altman addresses cost-friendly competition from DeepSeek

For some time now, DeepSeek has been generating quite a buzz in the AI community. Notably, a research paper released by this Chinese startup boasted about their R1 V3-driven model’s abilities, outperforming OpenAI’s exclusive 01 reasoning model across various tests like science, math, and programming. This was achieved while keeping the development cost significantly lower than that of its counterpart.

Contrary to some claims, it appears DeepSeek may have utilized data that’s under copyright by Microsoft and OpenAI. On the other hand, contrary to speculation, the Chinese firm didn’t fund its AI model development with $6 million but is reported to have spent approximately $1.6 billion, which included around 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs for training.

As an analyst, I must admit that the advent of DeepSeek has sparked apprehension among investors, particularly with regards to the substantial financial outlay it requires within the current market landscape. The joint investment of OpenAI and SoftBank, totaling a staggering $500 billion, is being channeled into the Stargate project for the development of data centers across the US, aimed at bolstering AI advancements. However, I ponder if this substantial investment will be sufficient to preserve the United States’ leading position in the realm of artificial intelligence.

According to Sam Altman, Deepseek’s AI advancements are noteworthy, yet he predicts that OpenAI might develop superior models. However, he suggests that the gap between them compared to past years may not be as significant.

OpenAI’s Stargate vision and baseline on open-source AI models

1) The announcement of OpenAI’s $500 billion commitment to their new Stargate project has sparked some skepticism, even from notable figures like Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, who questioned whether the investors have the necessary funds to back such ambitious initiatives. Similarly, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff suggested that Microsoft would no longer utilize OpenAI’s technology in the future.

Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer at OpenAI, emphasized the significance of the project for the company by stating: “This initiative is crucial to our organization.

It appears that the current thinking is that the greater the computational resources we have at our disposal, the superior the models we can construct and the more valuable the products we can develop. At present, we are increasing the size of our pre-training models concurrently with an enhancement in RL/strawberry, both of which require substantial computational power. Additionally, providing products to hundreds of millions of users necessitates significant computational resources. Furthermore, as we transition towards more agentic products that perform continuous work on your behalf, this too requires a considerable amount of computational power. In essence, Stargate can be seen as our factory for transforming energy and GPUs into fantastic items tailored to meet your needs.

In other places, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, acknowledged that the company has taken a stance counter to historical progress and must reconsider its approach to open-source projects. However, not all individuals at OpenAI hold this perspective, and it’s currently not our primary focus of attention.

After receiving funding from major investors like Microsoft, SoftBank, NVIDIA, and others, totaling $6.6 billion, the company behind ChatGPT now has a market value of $157 billion. This growth puts immense pressure on the company to transform into a profit-driven entity. If it fails to do so, it may become vulnerable to external control or hostile takeovers. Market analysts suggest that within three years, Microsoft could potentially acquire the company as investor enthusiasm for AI begins to decline.

Previously joint founder Elon Musk has initiated two legal actions against OpenAI, claiming breach of its original purpose and suspected participation in unlawful business conspiracies.

OpenAI won’t raise the cost for its ChatGPT Plus tier

A user expressed apprehension, inquiring whether OpenAI was considering increasing the subscription fee for its ChatGPT Plus tier from $20 per month to a much higher amount, such as $2,000 per month. Given recent speculation about potential cost hikes for OpenAI’s AI models due to bankruptcy allegations, such a price rise seems plausible. However, one user found this pricing to be unreasonable for a chatbot, implying that it would only be justifiable if the service was truly Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and CPO Kevin Weil have clarified they currently have no intentions of increasing the cost for the existing ChatGPT Plus subscription. In fact, Sam Altman mentioned that he aims to lower the price in the future.

OpenAI on security and US National government partnership

Observing recent developments, I can’t help but wonder aloud: OpenAI joining forces with the US government for enhanced security and safety of their AI advancements has me thinking – “Weren’t there movies like Terminator that hinted at potential dangers?” A concerned user posed this very question. “Just a slight misstep, and we may not be here to ponder why such precautions were necessary.

OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil indicated:

HAHA! These scientists I’ve come to know are not only experts in AI but also top-tier researchers. They recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their models, which is why I find it highly unlikely that they’d blindly use model outputs for something as critical as nuclear calculations. Instead, they approach their work with intelligence, evidence, and a keen eye for validation through experimentation and data analysis.

As an analyst, I strongly concur with their assertion that partnering with our ‘o-series’ models could significantly boost the pace of fundamental scientific advancements and national security. I am genuinely thrilled at the prospect of this collaboration.

Sam Altman wants AI that accelerates scientific discovery

Imagine it’s the year 2030, and you’ve successfully developed an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system. This system outperforms all benchmarks presented to it, surpassing even your top engineers and researchers in terms of speed and performance. Now that you have this remarkable creation, are there any plans beyond simply making it available on a website? What should be the next steps or considerations when dealing with such advanced AI technology?

In response to the question, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, emphasized that the primary impact will be speeding up the pace of scientific discoveries, which could lead to significant enhancements in our quality of life. Previously, Altman forecasted that superintelligence would spur a 10-fold increase in AI breakthroughs in science, making each subsequent year equivalent to an entire decade of progress.

Adding to that, OpenAI’s VP of Engineering, Srinivas Narayanan, indicated:

In the future, our interaction with AI may undergo a significant transformation. Instead of being passive tools, AI systems will become proactive agents that work tirelessly on your behalf, tackling complex tasks and pursuing your objectives unobtrusively. They will periodically update you when it’s beneficial to do so. Additionally, advancements in robotics should enable these AI systems to perform practical tasks within the real world for our convenience.

GPT-4o image generator could ship in “a couple of months”

A user eagerly inquired about OpenAI possibly sending its GPT-4 image generator. In response, Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s Chief Product Officer, stated that they are actively working on the product and suggested it would be worthwhile to be patient. He approximately estimated the release date within the next “few months.

As an observer, I’ve noticed the recent announcement by OpenAI following Elon Musk’s reveal of Grok AI, a model known for being ‘unapologetically bold and open.’ There’s been some criticism towards Copilot and ChatGPT experiences, particularly after updates that seem to have restricted their image generation abilities due to increased censorship. It will certainly be intriguing to observe how OpenAI’s GPT-4o measures up against Musk’s uncensored counterpart in the coming days.

Regarding the latest developments with GPT-4o: Although OpenAI Research Lead Hongyu Ren didn’t explicitly disclose the company’s specific plans for this model, Ren suggested that there are still advancements to come in the 4o series. This may involve updates for tailor-made GPT models and enabling users to choose which models they interact with when using GPTs.

Moving forward, there will be no further reductions in API costs for the company, with the changes made in August 2024 being the limit. Instead, the creators of ChatGPT suggest using o4-mini as a more affordable option.

2025-02-04 23:11

Sam Altman Admits OpenAI’s Mistakes and Urges for New Open-Source Strategy