HomeBarry Diller: Trust in Sam Altman irrelevant as AGI nears
Barry Diller, the billionaire media titan, does not believe OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is untrustworthy, despite recent reports suggesting otherwise. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's "Future of Everything" conference this week, Diller defended Altman, who has faced accusations from some former colleagues and board members of occasionally being manipulative and deceptive.
Diller, a friend of Altman, was responding to a question about whether people should place their trust in Altman to ensure artificial intelligence benefits humanity.
Specifically, he was asked about the theoretical form of AI known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which could one day outperform humans on any task.
The media executive, a co-founder of Fox Broadcasting and chairman of IAC and Expedia Group, stated that while he believes Altman is sincere in his pursuits, that is not the area people should focus on. Rather, it is the unknown consequences that will stem from AI.
"One of the big issues with AI is that it goes far beyond trust," Diller said. "Trust may be irrelevant because the things happening are a surprise even to those making them happen. I've spent a lot of time with various people in AI creation mode, and they themselves have a sense of wonder. So… it's the great unknown. We don't know. They don't know," he explained.
"We have embarked on something that will change almost everything. It's not underreported. Now, whether these huge investments will pay off—I couldn't care less. I'm not invested in it, but progress will be made," Diller added.
Nevertheless, the media mogul said he believes most of the leaders driving this forward are good stewards, adding that he considers Altman sincere and "a decent person with good values." (It's worth noting that Diller declined to say which AI leaders he thinks are insincere.)
"But the issue is not their stewardship. The issue is… it's truly about dealing with the unknown. They don't know what can happen once you get AGI, and we're close to it. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer and closer, faster and faster. And we must think about guardrails," Diller noted.
Furthermore, he warned that if humans don't consider guardrails, the alternative is that "another force, an AGI force, will do it themselves. And once that happens, once you unleash that, there's no going back," Diller said.
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Barry Diller, the billionaire media titan, does not believe OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is untrustworthy, despite recent reports suggesting otherwise. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's "Future of Everything" conference this week, Diller defended Altman, who has faced accusations from some former colleagues and board members of occasionally being manipulative and deceptive.
Diller, a friend of Altman, was responding to a question about whether people should place their trust in Altman to ensure artificial intelligence benefits humanity.
Specifically, he was asked about the theoretical form of AI known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which could one day outperform humans on any task.
The media executive, a co-founder of Fox Broadcasting and chairman of IAC and Expedia Group, stated that while he believes Altman is sincere in his pursuits, that is not the area people should focus on. Rather, it is the unknown consequences that will stem from AI.
"One of the big issues with AI is that it goes far beyond trust," Diller said. "Trust may be irrelevant because the things happening are a surprise even to those making them happen. I've spent a lot of time with various people in AI creation mode, and they themselves have a sense of wonder. So… it's the great unknown. We don't know. They don't know," he explained.
"We have embarked on something that will change almost everything. It's not underreported. Now, whether these huge investments will pay off—I couldn't care less. I'm not invested in it, but progress will be made," Diller added.
Nevertheless, the media mogul said he believes most of the leaders driving this forward are good stewards, adding that he considers Altman sincere and "a decent person with good values." (It's worth noting that Diller declined to say which AI leaders he thinks are insincere.)
"But the issue is not their stewardship. The issue is… it's truly about dealing with the unknown. They don't know what can happen once you get AGI, and we're close to it. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer and closer, faster and faster. And we must think about guardrails," Diller noted.
Furthermore, he warned that if humans don't consider guardrails, the alternative is that "another force, an AGI force, will do it themselves. And once that happens, once you unleash that, there's no going back," Diller said.
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