We are living in the world we were warned about. Frontier artificial intelligence models from OpenAI autonomously coordinated with one another, then broke out of their testing environment and hacked into another company, Hugging Face, to steal the answers to a test.
A.I. companies donβt want their technology to lie, cheat or steal. So why is this happening? Why are the creators of these models apparently unable to control their creations? If A.I. development isnβt on a safe path β and it doesnβt seem to be β what do we do about it?
Helen Toner has been thinking about A.I. safety for a long time, from both inside and outside A.I. companies. She was part of the effort to fire OpenAIβs chief executive, Sam Altman, in 2023, which ultimately failed. Currently, sheβs the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Mentioned:
βPacing the Frontierβ open letter
βThe Future is for Everyoneβ by Mark Zuckerberg
Recommendations:
The Cuckooβs Egg by Cliff Stoll
In the Cells of the Eggplant by David Chapman
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast by John Zhu
This episode of βThe Ezra Klein Showβ was produced by Rollin Hu and Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Johnny Simon. Our recording engineer is Aman Sahota. Cinematography by Marina King and Jonas Zellner. Video editing by Brandon Belk-Yee. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The showβs production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.