OpenAI adds AI safety official to its board
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OpenAI is adding AI safety official and former company employee Paul Christiano to the board of directors of both OpenAI and its nonprofit.
Why it matters: The move comes as AI leaders are sounding the alarm that progress in the field is outstripping the ability to keep AI systems safe.
Driving the news: Christiano served as a senior tech advisor to the federal government's Center for AI Standards and Innovation and is the founder of the Alignment Research Center, a nonprofit that aims to ensure AI remains in support of human interests.
- He will join the foundation board's safety and security committee, working with chair Zico Kolter. That board has governance over safety practices at the for-profit company.
- Christiano was at OpenAI from 2017 to 2021 and led alignment research there, contributing foundational work in the training method known as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF).
What they're saying: "Paul has helped define the field of AI alignment through work that is rigorous and focused on the hardest questions posed by increasingly capable systems," OpenAI chair Bret Taylor said in a statement.
- "AI capabilities have advanced very rapidly in the last year and alignment remains a difficult technical problem, making the Safety and Security Committee's responsibility more important and more challenging than ever," Christiano said. "I am excited to join the team to help."
