The maker of ChatGPT advertised a job vacancy with a salary of $555.000 per year, but with a description that would make Superman sigh.
In a job that may be nearly impossible, OpenAI's "chief preparedness officer" will be directly responsible for defending against risks from increasingly powerful AI to human mental health, cybersecurity, and biological weapons.
The successful candidate should know what to do if Artificial Intelligence "turns against us."
“It’s going to be a stressful job and you’re going to be in the deep end almost immediately” (or shut up and swim), said Sam Altman, CEO of the San Francisco-based organization, as it launched a search to fill “a critical role” that will “help people.”
The successful candidate will be responsible for assessing and mitigating emerging threats and “monitoring and preparing for cutting-edge capabilities that create new risks of serious harm.” Previous executives in this position have lasted very short periods of time.
The announcement of the position contradicts warnings from the AI industry about the dangers of increasingly capable technology. On Monday, Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI chief executive, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I honestly think that if you're not a little bit scared right now, then you're not paying enough attention."
Demis Hassabis, Nobel laureate and co-founder of Google DeepMind, warned this month for risks that include “using Artificial Intelligence in a way that harms humanity.”
Amid resistance or indifference from Donald Trump’s White House, there is little regulation of AI at the national or international level. Yoshua Bengio, a computer scientist known as one of the “godfathers of AI,” recently stated:
"A sandwich has more regulation than Artificial Intelligence."
The result is that AI companies are largely self-regulating.
Altman declared to X as he began his job search:
“We have a strong foundation for measuring the growing capabilities, but we are entering a world where we need a more detailed understanding and measurement of how those capabilities could be abused and how we can mitigate those disadvantages both in our products and in the world, in a way that allows us all to enjoy the enormous benefits. These questions are difficult and there is no precedent.”
One user sarcastically replied: “Sounds pretty laid back, vacation included?”
What is certainly included is an unspecified equity stake in OpenAI, a company that has been valued at $500 billion and has borrowed nearly as much.
OpenAI will need 207 billion to continue paying off debt
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
