The article discusses the subjective nature of AI advances, and how consensus on the significance of a breakthrough often takes time to form. It also highlights the influence of large tech companies in shaping the direction of AI development. The increasing secrecy in AI research, driven by commercial competition and the potential risks of superintelligence, is also discussed. OpenAI's secrecy is partly justified by the need to guard against accelerating the path to superintelligence, but it also admits that it helps maintain its competitive advantage. The article concludes by noting that without additional knowledge and scientific corroboration, the significance of Q* remains a matter of speculation and personal opinion.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, has been shrouded in secrecy, making it difficult to understand how they develop their technology and the direction of their future work.
- There have been concerns raised about a new algorithm called Q*, which has shown the ability to solve new math problems, potentially indicating an improvement in its reasoning abilities.
- AI advances are often subjective and it can take time for consensus to form about whether a particular algorithm or piece of research was a breakthrough.
- OpenAI's secrecy is partly due to the potential risk of accelerating the path to superintelligence, but also to maintain its competitive advantage in the industry.