Q*, OpenAI Research On Potential Artificial Intelligence Threatens Humans

OpenAI employees who support the return of Greg Brockman and Sam Altman. (photo: x @openai)

JAKARTA - Before OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired for four days, some staff researchers sent a letter to the board of directors warning of a discovery of powerful artificial intelligence that could threaten humanity. Two sources familiar with this told Reuters.

"The letters and previously unreported AI algorithms triggered the eviction of Altman, which became the icon of the AI genrative," said the two sources.

Before Almat's brilliant return on Tuesday night, more than 700 employees threatened to quit and join Microsoft in solidarity with their sacked leader.

The source called the letter one of the factors among the list of long complaints from the council that led to Altman's dismissal. However, the researcher who wrote the letter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. OpenaI also declined to comment.

According to one of the sources, long-term executive Mira Murati told employees on Wednesday that a letter about an AI breakthrough called Q* (read Q-Star), sparked the council's action.

ChatGPT makers have made progress on Q*, which some internally believe could be a breakthrough in startup searches for super intelligence, also known as generalized artificial intelligence (AGI), said one of those sources. OpenAI defines AGI as an AI system that is smarter than humans.

With huge computing resources, the new model is able to solve some mathematical problems. Despite simply doing mathematics at the elementary school level, the success in such a test made researchers very optimistic about Q*'s future success.