Sam Altman's OpenAI Responds To Security Concerns With New Governance Team

Microsoft Corp MSFT backed OpenAI has established a new board committee dedicated to evaluating the safety and security of its artificial intelligence models.

The governance change comes shortly after the resignation of a key executive in the area and the subsequent disbanding of his internal team.

OpenAI announced that the committee will spend 90 days assessing the safeguards in its technology before presenting a report, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The company plans to publicly share updates on the recommendations after the full board's review. Additionally, OpenAI revealed that it has begun training its latest AI model.

Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer, was briefly ousted last fall following a clash with co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever over the pace of AI development and measures to mitigate potential harms.

Also Read: OpenAI's ChatGPT Fails To Meet EU's Data Accuracy Standards, Says Privacy Watchdog

Concerns resurfaced this month when Sutskever and key deputy Jan Leike left the company. Leike, who led the superalignment team addressing long-term AI threats, cited struggles with computing resources as a reason for his resignation.

After Sutskever's departure, OpenAI dissolved its team and reassigned its tasks to the research unit under co-founder John Schulman, now Head of Alignment Science.

The company has also revoked a policy that penalized ex-employees equity if they publicly criticized the firm.

The new safety committee includes board members Bret Taylor, Adam D'Angelo, Nicole Seligman, and six employees, including Schulman and Altman.

OpenAI will continue to seek advice from external experts, including Rob Joyce, a Homeland Security adviser, and John Carlin, a former Justice Department official.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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