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GPT-4 Marks New Era Of Closed-Source AI

OpenAI is in charge.
Created on March 17|Last edited on March 17
The tech world has been buzzing in regards to OpenAI’s newest release from its blockbuster series of GPT models. However, one thing no one is talking about it the technical specs of GPT-4. For example, how many parameters does the model have? Or, what datasets was the model trained on? According to “OpenAI,” on page 2 of the official GPT-4 technical report, the company states: “We are committed to independent auditing of our technologies, and shared some initial steps and ideas in this area in the system card accompanying this release.2 We plan to make further technical details available to additional third parties who can advise us on how to weigh the competitive and safety considerations above against the scientific value of further transparency.”

New Strategy

So it seems that not only has the company completely reversed financial status (from non-profit to capped profit), it has also decided to completely reverse course in regards to sharing its research. Whether or not this is a wise move for humanity remains to be seen, however, one thing seems to be clear, and that is OpenAI will likely shift towards more closed off development of AI systems going forward. Jess Whittlestone, head of AI policy at UK think tank’s The Centre for Long-Term Resilience, said that these types of decisions “shouldn’t be up to individual companies to make these decisions.” [1] Whittlestone also said “Ideally we need to codify what are practices here and then have independent third-parties playing a greater role in scrutinizing the risks associated with certain models and whether it makes sense to release them to the world.” [1]

Early Days

We are coming to a point where technology is moving faster than legislation, and it seems these are the “Wild West” days of AI, where there are essentially no rules or processes that deal with issues around AI. It remains to be seen how governments will react and how funding will be reallocated to deal with these issues. Overall, despite the exciting capabilities of next generation AI technology, it also seems that most government are unsure how to put processes and guidelines in place, and private companies are making these decisions in place of government.

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