Musk commented on reports about OpenAI’s new breakthroughs in the field of AGI, calling them extremely worrying. Before OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired, several researchers sent a letter to the company's board of directors warning that a powerful artificial intelligence discovery could threaten humanity, according to media reports citing people familiar with the matter. Two sources said the previously unreported letter and the AI algorithm were the catalysts that led the board to oust Altman.
The letter was one of many board grievances that led to Altman's firing, sources said. OpenAI executive Mira Murati told employees on Wednesday that the letter about an artificial intelligence breakthrough called "Q*" (pronounced Q-star) prompted the board's action, one of the sources said.
One of the people said OpenAI is making progress on Q*, which some insiders believe could be the startup's breakthrough in superintelligence, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Given the vast computing resources, the new model is capable of solving certain mathematical problems, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the company. Although Q*'s current math performance is at the level of elementary school students, excellent results on these tests make researchers very optimistic about Q*'s future success.