Where We Go From Here with OpenAI's Mira Murati

a16z
25 Sept 202325:43

Summary

TLDRIn this insightful discussion, the guest shares their journey from Albania to working at OpenAI, emphasizing the importance of math and science in their upbringing. They delve into the challenges of building products with AI models, exploring the evolution from theoretical concepts to practical applications in fields like aerospace and automotive engineering. The conversation highlights the significance of AI safety, alignment with human values, and the potential of large language models to transform how we interact with technology, suggesting a future where AI systems could autonomously perform intellectual tasks, raising questions about reliability and the economic implications of AI advancements.

Takeaways

  • ๐ŸŒŸ The speaker emphasizes the difficulty of building good products on top of AI models, suggesting that while model creation is a focus, the real challenge lies in application.
  • ๐Ÿ“š Born in post-Communist Albania, the speaker's early education was heavily focused on math and sciences, which influenced his career path in mechanical engineering and AI.
  • ๐Ÿš€ With a background in mechanical engineering and aerospace, the speaker's interest in AI was sparked during his time at Tesla, particularly with the development of autopilot systems.
  • ๐Ÿ•ถ๏ธ The speaker explored augmented reality and virtual reality, noting the importance of understanding the practical applications and limitations of these technologies.
  • ๐Ÿง  The shift in focus from theoretical knowledge to building practical applications is highlighted, with an emphasis on the generality of AI over domain-specific competence.
  • ๐Ÿ”ฎ OpenAI's mission attracted the speaker due to its focus on building AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which he sees as a fundamental and inspiring goal for technology development.
  • ๐Ÿค– The speaker discusses the importance of AI safety, particularly the development of reinforcement learning with human feedback to align AI systems with human values.
  • ๐Ÿ”— The dialogue capability of AI models like Chat GPT is seen as a special form of interaction that allows for the expression of uncertainty and correction of errors, contributing to AI safety.
  • ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ The speaker suggests that we are at an inflection point in redefining human-digital interaction, moving towards a model where AI systems act more as collaborators than tools.
  • ๐Ÿ“ˆ The transcript discusses the concept of scaling laws in AI, indicating that there is still significant room for improvement as models scale up in terms of data and compute power.
  • ๐Ÿ’ก The future of AI is envisioned with models that encompass multiple modalities (text, images, video) for a more comprehensive understanding, akin to human perception.

Q & A

  • What was the educational focus in post-Communist Albania and how did it influence the speaker's interests?

    -In post-Communist Albania, there was a significant focus on math and physics, which influenced the speaker to develop a strong interest in these fields. The humanities were considered questionable due to the ambiguity of information sources and truthfulness, leading the speaker to pursue math and sciences relentlessly.

  • How did the speaker's career evolve from mechanical engineering to working with AI?

    -The speaker started as a mechanical engineer working in Aerospace and later joined Tesla, where they initially worked on Model S dual motor and then led the Model X program. This experience sparked an interest in AI applications, particularly autopilot, which led them to explore AI in different domains such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and eventually joining OpenAI to focus on general AI (AGI).

  • What was the speaker's initial attraction to OpenAI?

    -The speaker was drawn to OpenAI because of its mission, which they felt was more important than any other technology they could contribute to. They believed that building intelligence is a core unit that affects everything and is inspiring for elevating and increasing the collective intelligence of humanity.

  • How does the speaker view the role of physics and math backgrounds in the field of AI today compared to 15 years ago?

    -The speaker observes that many influential contributors to the AI space today have a physics or math background, which is a shift from 15 years ago when the field was more dominated by engineers from lexical, mechanical, and other engineering backgrounds.

  • What does the speaker mean by 'building an intuition' in the context of problem-solving in math and theoretical spaces?

    -The speaker refers to the process of deeply engaging with a problem over an extended period, often requiring time for reflection and incubation, which leads to the development of a new idea or solution. This process builds an intuition for identifying the right problems to work on and the discipline to persevere until a solution is found.

  • How does the speaker perceive the current state of AI systems in terms of their capabilities and limitations?

    -The speaker sees AI systems as having made significant progress, particularly in representation and understanding of concepts, but acknowledges that there are still substantial limitations, especially regarding output reliability, such as the issue of hallucinations and the need for models to express uncertainty.

  • What is the speaker's perspective on the future of programming and AI interaction?

    -The speaker believes that we are at an inflection point where the way we interact with digital information is being redefined through AI systems. They envision a future where natural language interfaces become more prevalent, allowing for collaboration with AI models as if they were companions or co-workers.

  • What was the original intent behind creating Chat GPT, according to the speaker?

    -Chat GPT was initially created as a means to get feedback from researchers on the dialogue modality of AI, with the goal of using this feedback to improve the alignment, safety, and reliability of more advanced models like GPT-4.

  • How does the speaker define AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)?

    -The speaker defines AGI as a computer system capable of performing autonomously the majority of intellectual work, indicating a level of capability that spans a wide range of tasks beyond specific domains.

  • What are the speaker's thoughts on the future of AI in terms of economics and the workforce?

    -The speaker anticipates that AI systems will take over more tasks, allowing humans to focus on higher-level work and potentially reducing the amount of time spent working. They also suggest that AI could lead to a more powerful and accessible platform for building applications and products.

  • What is the speaker's view on the potential future of AI models in terms of their capabilities and roles?

    -The speaker expects AI models to become incredibly powerful, with the ability to understand and interact with the world across multiple modalities. They also highlight the importance of addressing the challenge of super alignment to ensure these models are safe and aligned with human intentions.

Outlines

00:00

๐ŸŒŸ From Albania to AI: A Journey of Intellectual Curiosity

The speaker reflects on their journey from being born in post-communist Albania to developing a deep interest in math and sciences. This early education in a politically isolated country with a strong emphasis on math and physics led to a career in mechanical engineering and eventually to Tesla, where they contributed to the development of the Model S and X. The speaker's focus on applying knowledge to build practical applications, especially in AI, led them to explore various domains including augmented reality, virtual reality, and eventually to OpenAI, where they became deeply involved in the development of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).

05:01

๐Ÿค– The Convergence of Physics and AI: A New Era of Problem Solving

The speaker discusses the increasing intersection between physics and computer science, noting that many influential figures in AI have a background in physics or math. They highlight the unique problem-solving approach required in theoretical fields, which involves deep contemplation and patience. The conversation delves into whether AI development is becoming more of a systems or engineering problem, with the speaker suggesting that while systems and engineering challenges are significant, there is still much to explore in terms of fundamental advancements in AI.

10:02

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ The Evolution of AI Interfaces: From APIs to Natural Language

This section explores the evolution of how humans interact with AI, moving from traditional APIs to more natural language interfaces. The speaker shares their personal experience using AI models and the feeling of using a 'supercomputer with an abacus', indicating the disparity between the power of AI models and the simplicity of current programming interfaces. They speculate on the future of programming, suggesting that it may become less abstract and more collaborative, with AI models acting as partners in the creative process.

15:06

๐Ÿš€ The Birth of Chat GPT: A Focus on Safety and Alignment

The speaker recounts the origins of Chat GPT, which was not initially intended as a product but emerged from research into safe AI systems. They discuss the development of reinforcement learning with human feedback to align AI systems with human values and prevent misuse. The speaker also touches on the challenges of hallucinations in AI and the efforts to make models more reliable and safe through fine-tuning and user feedback.

20:06

๐Ÿ”ฎ Prognosticating AI's Future: Scaling Laws and Economic Implications

In this paragraph, the speaker addresses the question of AI's future, particularly the concept of scaling laws and whether the pace of progress will continue. They express optimism about the potential for AI to become more capable as models scale up, despite the historical pattern of diminishing returns in AI. The speaker also considers the economic impact of AI, drawing parallels with the silicon industry and speculating on whether general AI models will dominate or if there will be a fragmentation of specialized models.

25:09

๐ŸŒ The Expanding Role of AI: From Text to Multimodal Understanding

The speaker envisions a future where AI models encompass not just text but also images, video, and other modalities, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the world. They discuss the importance of pre-training models to have a broad sense of the world and the challenges of making AI outputs reliable through reinforcement learning with human feedback. The speaker also hints at the potential for AI to solve issues like hallucinations and the importance of building a platform that facilitates collaboration between humans and AI.

๐ŸŒŒ The Challenge of Super Alignment: Ensuring AI Serves Human Intentions

In the final paragraph, the speaker discusses the challenge of super alignment, ensuring that increasingly powerful AI models are aligned with human intentions. They acknowledge the fear associated with powerful misaligned AI and the importance of addressing this technical challenge. The speaker also reflects on their personal stance, positioning themselves as something other than a doomer or accelerationist, indicating a nuanced view of AI's potential and risks.

Mindmap

Keywords

๐Ÿ’กAI

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. In the video, AI is central to the discussion, with a focus on its applications and the challenges of building good products on top of AI models. The speaker's journey from studying mechanical engineering to working with AI at Tesla and OpenAI exemplifies the practical application of AI.

๐Ÿ’กAutonomy

Autonomy in the context of AI refers to the ability of systems to operate independently without human intervention. The video discusses the progression towards AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, which is characterized by an AI system's capacity to perform autonomously across a broad range of intellectual tasks, much like humans.

๐Ÿ’กModel

In AI, a 'model' is a system that has been trained on data to make predictions or decisions. The script mentions building models and the difficulty of creating good products on top of these models. It also discusses the evolution from theoretical models to practical applications in fields like aerospace and automotive engineering.

๐Ÿ’กOpenAI

OpenAI is a research and deployment organization focused on creating and disseminating safe and beneficial AI technologies. The speaker mentions being drawn to OpenAI because of its mission, indicating the organization's role in advancing AI and its emphasis on safety and alignment with human values.

๐Ÿ’กAGI

AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, is the concept of a machine that possesses the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks at a level equal to or beyond that of a human. The video discusses the pursuit of AGI and the challenges in achieving a system that can autonomously perform the majority of intellectual work.

๐Ÿ’กReinforcement Learning

Reinforcement Learning is a type of machine learning where an agent learns to make decisions by taking actions in an environment to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. The video mentions reinforcement learning with human feedback as a method to align AI systems with human values and improve their ability to follow instructions.

๐Ÿ’กHallucinations

In the context of AI, 'hallucinations' refer to the generation of false or misleading information by a model, which is a significant issue for AI reliability. The script discusses the challenge of addressing hallucinations in AI models and the potential solutions, such as incorporating browsing capabilities for models to cite sources and reduce misinformation.

๐Ÿ’กAPI

API stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a set of rules and protocols for building software applications. The video mentions the use of APIs to make AI models accessible, allowing developers to integrate AI capabilities into their applications without needing deep expertise in machine learning.

๐Ÿ’กAlignment

Alignment in AI refers to the process of ensuring that an AI system's actions and goals are consistent with human intentions and values. The script discusses the importance of alignment for safety and the development of methods like reinforcement learning with human feedback to achieve it.

๐Ÿ’กEconomics of AI

The economics of AI pertains to the costs, benefits, and market dynamics associated with the development and deployment of AI technologies. The video script alludes to the potential for AI to reshape the economic landscape, with general AI models possibly consuming specific functionalities and creating new industry structures.

๐Ÿ’กProductization

Productization is the process of creating a product out of a service, technology, or concept. The video emphasizes the difficulty of building good products on top of AI models, indicating that while creating AI models is a significant focus, turning these models into successful products that meet market needs is a complex challenge.

Highlights

Building good products on top of AI models is incredibly difficult.

The speaker's background includes a focus on math and sciences, influenced by the educational environment in post-communist Albania.

Interest in applying mathematical knowledge to build things, leading to a career in mechanical engineering and aerospace.

Experience at Tesla contributed to an interest in AI applications, particularly autopilot technology.

The transition from theoretical to practical applications of AI in domains like augmented reality and virtual reality.

The importance of generality in AI and the appeal of working on AGI at Open AI.

The prevalence of physics and math backgrounds among influential figures in the AI space.

The value of a theoretical approach to problem-solving in AI development.

The difference in user engagement between APIs and more accessible AI technologies like Chat GPT.

The potential for natural language interfaces to replace traditional programming in AI interaction.

The concept of AI as a collaborative partner rather than just a tool to program.

The strategy of making AI technology accessible to discover new use cases and applications.

The development of Chat GPT as a means to gather feedback from researchers on alignment and safety.

The challenge of addressing AI hallucinations and the potential of reinforcement learning with human feedback.

The decision-making process at Open AI regarding what to work on, focusing on safety and alignment.

The economic implications of AI, drawing parallels to the evolution of the silicon industry.

The future of AI as potentially capable of performing the majority of intellectual work, defined as AGI.

The current state of AI capabilities, with a focus on reliability and expanding to new tasks.

The importance of emerging capabilities in AI, even if they are currently unreliable.

The potential trajectory of AI systems becoming autonomous and the need for human oversight.

The vision for AI platforms, allowing people to build on top of pre-trained models.

The challenge of building good products on top of AI models, which is more difficult than model creation.

The future of multi-modal AI models, incorporating text, images, and video for a comprehensive understanding of the world.

The focus on reliability in AI outputs and the introduction of methods to reduce hallucinations.

The concept of AI as a collection of collaborative agents, providing a platform for others to build upon.

The long-term challenge of super alignment in AI as models become incredibly powerful.

The speaker's perspective on AI's future, neither a doomer nor an accelerationist, but something else.

Transcripts

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there is a lot of Focus right now on

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building more models but you know

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building good products on top of these

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models is incredibly difficult

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thank you

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I would love it if you're comfortable

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it's giving kind of the longer form of

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your background what brought you to open

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AI you know just kind of bring us up to

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speed and then we'll go from there yeah

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so um

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it was born in Albania just after the

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fall of Communism very interesting times

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in this you know very isolated countries

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sort of similar to North Korea today and

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I bring that up because it was I think

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very Central to sort of my

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education and focus in math and sciences

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because there was a lot of focus on

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maths and physics

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in in Coast communist Albania and you

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know the humanities like history and

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sociology and these type of topics they

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were a bit questionable like the source

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of information and truthfulness was uh

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was hard it was ambiguous so anyway I I

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got very interested in math and sciences

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and that's what I pursued relentlessly

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until you know still still working

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fundamentally in mathematics

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and over time my interests grew more

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from this theoretical space into

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actually building things and figuring

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out how to

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apply that knowledge to build stuff and

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I studied mechanical engineering

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and went on to work in Aerospace as an

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engineer and then joined Tesla shortly

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after where I spent a few years

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initially I joined to work on Model S

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dual motor and then I went on to model X

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from the early days of the initial

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design and eventually led the whole

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program

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um to to Launch

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and this is when I got very interested

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in applications of AI and

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specifically with autopilot and so

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I started thinking more and more about

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different applications of AI okay what

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happens when you when you you're using

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Ai and computer visually in a different

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domain instead of autopilot

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and after Tesla I went on to work on

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augmented reality and virtual reality

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because I just wanted to get experience

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with different domains and I thought at

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the time that it was the right time to

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actually work on special computing

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obviously in retrospect too early

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back then but anyways I learned a lot

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about the limitations of pushing this

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technology to the practicality of using

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it every day and at this point I started

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thinking more about what happens if you

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just focus on the generality like forget

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the competence in different domains and

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just focus on generality and there were

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two places at the time there were laser

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focused on this issue and open Ai and

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deepmind

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uh and I was very drawn to open AI

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because of its Mission and I felt like

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there's not going to be a more important

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technology that we all built than than

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AGI

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um

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back then I certainly did not have the

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same conviction about it as I do now

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but I thought that fundamentally if

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you're building intelligence it's such a

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it is such a core unit then the

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university it affects everything and so

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you know what what else is there is

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there to do more inspiring than than

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Elevate and increase Collective

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collective intelligence of humanity

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whenever I meet somebody that's a like a

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real

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um uh influencer and has done major

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contributions to the space they almost

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invariably have a physics background or

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a math background which is actually very

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different than it was 15 years ago like

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15 years ago I was like you know the

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kind of you know it was like engineers

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and you know they came from lexical

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engineering mechanical engineering but

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it does feel like

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um you know there's something and I

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don't know if it's like some like quirk

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in the network or like it's it's more

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fundamental like systemic and I mean do

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you think that this is kind of the time

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for the physicist to step up and kind of

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contribute to computer science and

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there's something about that or do you

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think it's just more of a coincidence

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so I think maybe one thing to draw on

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from the theoretical space of math

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but also the kind of the natural

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problems with math is that you know you

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kind of need to sit with a problem for a

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really long time and you have to think

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about it sometimes to sleep and you wake

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up and you have a new idea and over the

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course of maybe a few days sometimes or

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weeks you get to the final solution and

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so it's not like a quick reward

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and sometimes it's not this iterative

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thing and and I think it's almost like a

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different way of thinking where you're

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building an intuition but also a sort of

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discipline to sit with the problem and

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have faith that you're going to solve it

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and over time you build an intuition on

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what problem is the right problem to

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actually work on so do you think it's

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now more of a systems problem more like

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kind of more of an engineering problem

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or do you think that we still have a lot

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of like kind of pretty real kind of

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signs to unlock

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um both I think the systems and the

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engineering problem is massive

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um is as we're deploying these

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Technologies out there

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um and we're trying to scale them we're

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trying to make them more efficient we're

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trying to make them easily accessible so

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you don't need to have you know to know

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the intricacies of ml in order to use

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them and actually you can see sort of

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the contrast between making these models

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available through an API and making the

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technology available through child GPT

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it's fundamentally the same technology

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maybe with with a small difference with

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reinforcement learning with human

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feedback for chat GPT but it's

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fundamentally the same technology and

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the reaction and the ability to to grab

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people's imagination and to get them to

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just use the technology every day is

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totally different I also think the API

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for example PPT is such an interesting

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thing so it's my program against these

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models myself for fun right and it

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always feels like whenever I'm using one

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of these models in a program I'm like

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I'm wrapping a super computer with an

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abacus it's like the code itself just

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seems so kind of flimsy compared to the

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model that it's wrapping sometimes I'm

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like listen I'm just going to give the

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model

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like a keyboard and a mouse and like and

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let it do the programming and then

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actually the API is going to be English

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and I'll just tell it what to do and

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it'll do all the programming and I'm

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just kind of curious as you designed

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stuff like chat GPT do you view that

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over time the actual interface is going

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to be like the like natural languages or

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do you think that there's still a big

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role for programs the programming is

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becoming less abstract where we can

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actually talk to computers in high

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bandwidth in natural language but

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another Vector is one where we're using

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the technology and the technology is

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helping us understand how to actually

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collaborate how to collaborate with it

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versus program it and I think there is

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definitely the layer of programming

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becoming easier more accessible because

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you can program things in natural

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language but then there is also this

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other side which we've seen with child

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GPT that you can actually collaborate

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with the model as if it was a companion

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a partner Co worker you know that's the

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interesting thing like it'll be very

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interesting to see what happens over

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time like you've made decision to have

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an API and whatever but like you don't

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like have an API to a co-worker right

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like you talk to a co-worker so it could

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be the case that like over time these

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things evolve into like you just speak

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natural languages or do you think it

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will always be a component of a finite

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State machine a traditional computer

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that's it yeah I think this is right now

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an inflection point where we're sort of

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you know redefining how we interact with

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with digital information and it's it's

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through you know the form of this AI

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systems that we collaborate with and uh

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maybe we have several of them and maybe

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they all have different competences and

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maybe we have a general one that kind of

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follows us around everywhere knows

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everything about uh you know my context

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what I've been up to today what my goals

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are

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um sort of in life at work and kind of

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guides me through and coaches me and so

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on and you know you can imagine that

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being super super powerful so I think it

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is we are right now at this inflection

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point of redefining what this looks like

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um but you know

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but there is also

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we don't know exactly what the future

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looks like and so

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we are trying to make these tools

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available and the technology available

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to a lot of other people so they can

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experiment and we can see what happens

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it's a strategy that we we've been using

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from the beginning and also with child

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GPT where you know the week before we

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were worried that it wasn't good enough

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and we also what happened you know we

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put it out there and then people told us

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it is good enough to discover new use

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cases and you see all this emergent use

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cases that I know you've written about

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um and that's what happens when you make

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this stuff accessible and easy to use

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and put it in the hands of everyone so

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this leads to my my next question which

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is

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um so you invent cold fusion and then

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part of it you're like okay listen I'll

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just give people like electrical outlets

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and they'll use the energy but like I

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think when it comes to AI people don't

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really know how to think about it yet

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and so like there has to be some

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guidance like you have to make yeah some

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choices and so you know you're an

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opening you know you have to decide what

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to work on next well if you could like

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walk through that decision process like

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how do you decide like what to work on

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or what to focus on or what to release

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or how to position it if you consider

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how Chad GPT was born it was not born as

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a product that we wanted to put out

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there in fact the real roots of it go

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back to like more than five years ago

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when we were thinking about how do you

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how do you make this safe AI systems

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um and you know you don't necessarily

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want humans to actually write the the

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goal functions because you don't want to

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use proxies for complex call functions

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or you don't want to get it wrong it

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could be very dangerous this is where

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reinforcement learning with human

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feedback was was developed where you

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know

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but what we were trying to really

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achieve was to align the the AI system

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to human values and get it to receive

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human feedback and based on that human

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feedback it would be more likely to do

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the right thing less likely to do the

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thing that you don't want it to do

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and uh you know after we developed gpt3

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and we put it out there in the API this

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was the first time that we actually had

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Safety Research become practical into

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the real world and this happened through

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instruction following models so we use

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this method

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to basically take

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prompts from customers using the API and

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then we had contractors

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generate feedback for the model to learn

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from and we fine-tuned the model

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on on this data and build the

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instruction following models there were

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much more likely to to follow the intent

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of the user and to do the thing that you

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actually wanted to do and so this was

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very powerful because AI safety was not

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just this theoretical concept that you

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sit around and you talk about but it it

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actually became you know was sort of

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going into AI Safety Systems now like

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how do you integrate this into into the

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real world

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and obviously with large language models

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we see great representation of Concepts

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ideas of the real world but on the

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output front there are a lot of issues

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um and one of the biggest ones is

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obviously hallucinations

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and so

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we we had been studying the issue of

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hallucinations truthfulness

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um how do you get these models to

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express uncertainty the precursor to

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child GPT was actually another

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project that we called Web GPT

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and it used retrieval to be able to get

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information and cite sources and so this

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project then eventually turned into

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child gbt because we thought the

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dialogue was really special because it

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allows you to sort of you know ask

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questions to correct the other person to

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express uncertainty there's just

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something down the error because you're

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interacting exactly there is this

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interaction and you can get to a deeper

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truth

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um and and so anyway we we started going

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down this path and at the time we were

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doing this with gpt3 and ngpts 3.5

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um and and we were very excited about

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this from a safety perspective

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um but you know one thing that

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people forget is that actually at this

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time we had already trained gbd4 and so

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internally at open AI we were very

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excited about gbt4 and sort of put

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chagibit in the rear view mirror

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and uh then you know we kind of realized

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okay we're gonna take six months

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to focus on alignment and safety of gbt4

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and we started thinking about things

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that we could do and uh one of one of

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the main things was actually to put

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charge ubt in the hands of researchers

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out there that could give us feedback

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since we had this dialogue modality and

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so this was the original intent to

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actually

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get feedback from researchers and use it

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to make contributive form or aligned and

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safer and more robust more reliable I

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mean just for clarity when you say align

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and safety do you actually

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do you include in that like correct and

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does what it wants or do you mean

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safety like actual like protecting from

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some sort of harm by alignment I

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generally mean that it aligns with the

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user's intents so it does exactly the

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thing that you wanted to do

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but safety includes other things as well

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like misuse where the user is you know

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intentionally trying to use the model to

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generate to create harmful outputs

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um

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so yeah you can we were trying in this

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in this case with charge GPT we were

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actually

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um trying to make the model more likely

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to do the thing that you wanted to do to

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make it more lines and uh we also wanted

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to figure out the issue of

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hallucinations which is obviously an

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extremely hard problem but I do think

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that with this method of

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to reinforcement learning with human

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feedback maybe that is all we need if we

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push this hard dinner so there's no

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grand plan it was literally like what do

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we need to do to like get to AGI and

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it's just one step after right yes and

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it's you know all the little decisions

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that you make along the way but

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maybe what made it more likely to happen

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is the fact that we did make a strategic

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decision a couple of years ago to pursue

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products yeah and we did this because we

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thought it was actually crucial to

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figure out how to deploy these models in

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the real world and it would not be

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possible to just you know sit in a lab

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and develop this thing in a vacuum

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without feedback from users from The

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Real World so there was there was a

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hypothesis and and I think that that

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helped us along the way make some of

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these decisions build the underlying

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infrastructure so that we could actually

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eventually deploy things like

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I would love if you would Riff on

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scaling laws I think this is the big

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question that everybody has like I mean

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like the pace of progress has been

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phenomenal and you would love to think

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that the the graph always does this but

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like the history of AI seems to be that

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like you hit diminishing returns at some

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point and it's not parametric it kind of

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like tapers off and so

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from your standpoint was probably like

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the most informed vantage point in the

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entire industry do you think the scaling

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laws are going to hold and we're going

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to continue to see advancements or do

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you think we're hitting diminishing

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returns

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so there isn't

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any evidence that we will not get much

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better much more capable models as we

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continue to scale them across the access

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of data and compute whether that takes

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you all the way to AGI or not that's a

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different question there are probably

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some other breakthroughs and

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advancements needed along the way but I

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think there's still a long way to go

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in in the scaling laws and to really

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gather a lot of benefits from from these

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larger models how do you define AGI

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um in our chart Opening Our Charter we

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we Define it as a computer system

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basically that is able to perform

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autonomously the majority of

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intellectual work okay I am was that I

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was at a lunch and Robert nishihara from

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any scale was there and um and he asked

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what I called it Robert nishihara

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question which I thought was actually

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very good characterization he said okay

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so like you've got to continue in

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between like say a computer and Einstein

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so you can go from a computer to a cat

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you know from a cat to an average human

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and you go from an average human to

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Einstein then they ask a question of

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okay so where are we on the continue

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what problem have we solved and the

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consensus was we know how to go from a

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cat to an average human like we don't

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know how to go from like a computer to a

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cat because like that's you know that's

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the general perception problem or very

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close but we're not quite there yet and

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then we don't really know how to do the

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Einstein which is kind of set to set

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reasoning with fine tuning you can get a

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lot obviously

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um but in general I think we're sort of

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the most tasks kind of like in turn

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level I would say that's what I I

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generally say the issue is reliability

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right of course you know you can't fully

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rely on the system to do the thing that

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you wanted to do all the time and you

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know how do you increase that

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reliability over time and then how do

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you obviously expand to the the

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capabilities

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um the new the emergent capabilities the

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new things that these models can do I

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think though that it's important to pay

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attention to these emerging capabilities

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even if if they're highly unreliable and

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especially for people that you know are

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building companies today you really want

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to think about okay what what's somewhat

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possible today

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um what do you see glimpses of today

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because you know very quickly this could

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actually become

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these models could become reliable so

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I'd love I've been asking just a second

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to prognosticate on what that looks like

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but before very selfishly I've got uh

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I've got a question

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on on how you think the economics of

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this are going to pencil out which is

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I'll tell you what it reminds me of it

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reminds me very much of the Silicon

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industry

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so I remember in the 90s when you buy a

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computer there are all these weird

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co-processors there's like here's like

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string matching here's a floating Point

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here's crypto and like all of them got

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consumed into basically the the CPU it

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just turns out generality was very

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powerful and that created a certain type

play20:54

of economy one where like you had you

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know Intel and AMD and like you know it

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all went in there

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and of course because a lot of money to

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build these chips and so like you can

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imagine two Futures there's one future

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where like you know generality is so

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powerful that over time the large models

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basically consume all functionality

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and then there's another future where

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there's going to be a whole bunch of

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models and like things fragment and you

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know different points of the design

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space do you have a sense of like

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is it open Ai and nobody or is it

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everybody it kind of depends what you're

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trying to do so obviously the trajectory

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is one where these AI systems will be

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doing will be doing more and more of the

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work that we're doing and they'll be

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able to operate autonomously but we will

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need to provide Direction and guidance

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and oversee but I don't want to do a lot

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of the repetitive work that I have to do

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every day I want to focus on other

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things and maybe we don't have to work

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you know

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10 12 hours a day and maybe we can work

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less and Achieve even higher

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outputs and so that's sort of what I'm

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hoping for but in terms of like how this

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how this works out with with the

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platform

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um

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you can see even today you know we make

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a lot of models available through our

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API and from the various from the very

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small models to to our Frontier models

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and people don't always need to use the

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most powerful the most capable model

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sometimes they just made the model that

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actually fits for their specific use

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case and it's far more economical so I

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think there's going to be a range

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um but yeah in terms of how we're

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Imagining the platform play

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um we definitely want people to build on

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top of our models and we want to give

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them tools so to make that easy and give

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them more and more access and control so

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you know you can bring your data you can

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customize these models and you can

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really focus on the layer beyond the

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model and defining the products which is

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actually really really hard there is a

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lot of Focus right now on building more

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models but you know building good

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products on top of these models is

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incredibly difficult okay we only have a

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couple more minutes sadly I would love

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for you to prognosticate a little bit

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unlike where you think this is all going

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like yeah like three years or five years

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or ten years

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I think that um the the foundation

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models today obviously have this great

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representation of the world in text and

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we're adding other modalities like

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images and video and various other

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things so these models can get a more

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comprehensive sense of the world around

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us similar to how we understand and

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observe the world the world is not just

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in text it's also in images so I think

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that will certainly expand in in that

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direction and we'll have these bigger

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models that will have all these

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modalities

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um and that's kind of the pre-training

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part of the work where we really want to

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get

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these pre-trained models that understand

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the world like we do and then there is

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the output part of the model where we

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introduced reinforcement learning with

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human feedback and we want the model to

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do the actually the thing that we ask it

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to do and we want that to be reliable

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and there is a ton of work that needs to

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happen here and maybe introducing

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browsing so you can get fresh

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information and you can cite information

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and solve hallucinations I don't think

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that's impossible I think that's

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achievable on the product side I think

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we want to put this all together in this

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collection of agents that people

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collaborate with and you know really

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provide a platform where people can

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build on top of and you know if you

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extrapolate really far out these models

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are going to be incredibly incredibly

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powerful and with that obviously comes

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fear of them being misaligned having

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this very powerful model that are

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misaligned with our intentions so then a

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huge challenge becomes the the challenge

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of of super alignment which is a

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difficult technical Challenge and we've

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we've assembled an entire team at open

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AI um

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to just focus on on this problem so very

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very very last question are you a Doomer

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an accelerationist or something else

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let me say something else all right

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perfect thank you so much fantastic

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[Applause]

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[Music]

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