There's some reporting today on lawsuits filed against OpenAI in relation to the Tumbler Ridge incident. Here's the full statement I gave to several outlets: There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families. It’s a constant and sobering reminder of the important and incredibly difficult work that many people in my team do each and every day. At the center of this work are our Intelligence & Investigations (I2) team and our Legal department, who report to me and work hard to define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement and to apply those standards to really difficult and complex situations. They work continuously to identify potential warning signals of serious violence, while also protecting the privacy and security of the vast majority of the more than one billion users who use our tools responsibly. They use automated systems that leave the toughest calls to human judgment, but within standards to minimize discretion and produce principled decisions that strive to balance security and privacy for the people who use our service and the public. That judgment is not infallible, but it is always rooted in looking out for this balance for people. They also partner with mental health, behavioral, and law enforcement experts to help us refine our criteria for when conversations cross the line into an imminent and credible risk and to assess difficult cases. The professionals working on these teams choose to do this incredibly difficult work because they care so deeply about keeping people safe. They come to work every day knowing that they may have to make a decision that they’ll think about for the rest of their lives. That’s why it’s so frustrating to see one of the lawyers currently suing OpenAI make false claims not only about these teams, but individuals who were not involved in the process. As just one example, it is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way. It’s also completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are ‘political’ or ‘public relations’ factors at play. We’ve been approaching this litigation with respect for both the legal process and the families and victims of this tragedy, and we’ll continue to engage in good faith with that process.
i remember sitting in the YC office back then as you were talking about making the move to opeani. even that early on, you saw very clearly what it was, and everything that it could become. well, it happened - and wouldn't have happened without you. thanks for having been an incredible colleague, friend and builder throughout these years.
incredible essay x.com/boazbaraktcs/s…
Really glad Dean is joining OpenAI. He’s spent a lot of time thinking seriously about the biggest questions frontier labs need to get right: risk, governance, frontier policy issues, and what comes next. We won’t always agree on everything, which is a good thing. This is a really important moment for these debates, and we’ll be better for having him pressure-test and shape our thinking.
AI for science acceleration. Still early days and more great things to come. x.com/openai/status/…
An incredible story about art and entrepreneurship The tool is great but it’s the person who still brings it all together x.com/sound4movement…
Excited for us to invest more in resilience. Every lab can do its part, but it’ll take an entire ecosystem to get safety and security right. x.com/openai/status/…
What isn’t new is the continued rapid progression of AI capabilities. What is: significant shifts in the common knowledge of what the implications might be. We can use moments like these well by updating accordingly. It’s possible to be realistic while staying open to dialogue x.com/cjournal/statu…
