From The Telegraph via MSN, January 20:
US government officials are to receive a private briefing on a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) “super agents” as Silicon Valley executives flock to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, is preparing to give a behind-closed-doors briefing to US officials next week where the company will discuss the latest developments in its technology. Advances reportedly include its work on chatbots capable of PhD-level thinking.
Technology companies have been developing “AI agents” that can take on tasks typically undertaken by human workers, doing them by controlling parts of a user’s computer or phone to manage a diary or respond to routine emails.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is said to be using an AI tool developed by OpenAI to help her respond to some emails.
These bots are growing increasingly sophisticated, with expectations that AI chatbots will soon be able to perform tasks such as building a working app from scratch or engaging in long-term planning. This emerging form of AI could begin to do complex work normally taken on by a human, such as computer programming.
Developers and supporters of the technology say it will improve productivity and free up workers to focus on other tasks. However, the rapid advances threaten to upend millions of jobs.
Mira Murati, the former OpenAI technology chief, said last year that she expected many creative jobs that “maybe shouldn’t have been there in the first place” to “go away”.
AI companies are ultimately striving to develop superintelligence – or artificial general intelligence (AGI) – that far surpasses the capabilities of the human brain.
Axios reported that Mr Altman would meet officials in the US capital on Jan 30 to discuss its progress. However, the OpenAI founder sought to downplay the significance of its upcoming announcements.
Mr Altman said: “We are not going to deploy AGI next month, nor have we built it. We have some very cool stuff for you but [please] chill and cut your expectations 100x.”....
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