the number of safety focussed researchers employed by OpenAI is droppingrapidly
Is this true? The links only establish that two safety-focused researchers have recently left, in very different circumstances.
It seemed like OpenAI made a big push for more safety-focused researchers with the launch of Superalignment last July; I have no idea what the trajectory looks like more recently.
Do you have other information that shows that the number of safety-focused researchers at OpenAI is decreasing?
Yes, based on the last month, “the number of safety-focused researchers is dropping rapidly” certainly seems true.
I’d guess “most” is still an overstatement; I doubt the number of people has actually dropped by >50%. But the departures, plus learning that Superalignment never got their promised compute, have caused me to revise my fuzzy sense of “how much core safety work OpenAI is doing” down by a lot, probably over 50%.
I know of one that is less widely reported; not sure if they’re counted in the two Joseph Miller knows of that are less widely reported, or if separate.
I agree this is slightly hyperbolic. If you include the disappearance of Ilya Sutskever, there’s three. And I know of two more less widely reported. Depending on how narrow your definition of a “safety-focused researcher” is, five people leaving in less than 6 months is fairly significant.
Is this true? The links only establish that two safety-focused researchers have recently left, in very different circumstances.
It seemed like OpenAI made a big push for more safety-focused researchers with the launch of Superalignment last July; I have no idea what the trajectory looks like more recently.
Do you have other information that shows that the number of safety-focused researchers at OpenAI is decreasing?
Now that Jan Leike has left, superalignment team has been disbanded, OAI has really lost most of the safety focused researchers.
Yes, based on the last month, “the number of safety-focused researchers is dropping rapidly” certainly seems true.
I’d guess “most” is still an overstatement; I doubt the number of people has actually dropped by >50%. But the departures, plus learning that Superalignment never got their promised compute, have caused me to revise my fuzzy sense of “how much core safety work OpenAI is doing” down by a lot, probably over 50%.
I know of one that is less widely reported; not sure if they’re counted in the two Joseph Miller knows of that are less widely reported, or if separate.
I agree this is slightly hyperbolic. If you include the disappearance of Ilya Sutskever, there’s three. And I know of two more less widely reported. Depending on how narrow your definition of a “safety-focused researcher” is, five people leaving in less than 6 months is fairly significant.