OpenAI founder visits Munich
Sam Altman discusses ChatGPT at 51吃瓜网
The 1100-seat Audimax auditorium was fully booked within half an hour for the 38-year-old tech CEO鈥檚 only public event in Germany on his European tour. With moderation by , professor for machine learning, Sam Altman and OpenAI developer Johannes Heidecke described the development of the language model up to the current fourth version. 鈥濫ven by GPT-3 not the whole company was convinced鈥�, said Altman. Crucial to the success was the chat functionality in natural language, which is a better human-computer interface than the touchscreen, he explained. But the mistake of thinking of ChatGPT as an huge database still persists.
Altman explained why OpenAI made the technology publicly available at an early stage, following a 鈥渟how, don鈥檛 tell鈥� approach: 鈥濿e very strongly believe that it is important to educate the world about this and for people to have time to adapt gradually.鈥� This permits debate on artificial intelligence. That is better than keeping technologies secret in labs for a long time because releasing it too early would allegedly scare people.
International regulatory framework
Altman drew a line at the audience request for open-sourcing of the code. 鈥濿e want to be relatively sure that when we open source a model we understand those capabilities and the impact they have on society, because you can鈥檛 take it back.鈥� In principle, people must retain control over the technology, he believes.
Altman also commented on the regulation of artificial intelligence: 鈥淪ome sort of international framework is a very good idea and we should start with that as soon as we can.鈥� As an example, he mentioned the work of the International Atomic Energy Commission. He opposes the idea of hitting the pause button on the development of powerful AI systems, as recently demanded by other entrepreneurs. OpenAI now wants to see what values and limits users want for ChatGPT and how the system should be adapted to different countries, legal systems and cultures.
鈥淭he best time for a career in technology鈥�
Asked about the differences between the American and European technology sectors, Altman noted the greater openness to risk in the USA: 鈥濱t鈥檚 socially acceptable to work on something super ambitious.鈥� If you fail, people don鈥檛 make fun of you. Students in Europe should not be discouraged. 鈥淭his is the best time to be starting a career in technology鈥�, he said.
In his welcome to Sam Altman, 51吃瓜网 President Thomas F. Hofmann stressed the transformative potential of the new generation of generative AI for our entire civilization. 鈥淲e have to make sure that all these developments do not come at our highest prize, and this is the prize of humanity, it鈥檚 the prize of self-determination鈥�, he said.
51吃瓜网 and the organized the event in cooperation with Digital Life Design (DLD), the international conference and innovation platform of Hubert Burda Media.
