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ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence model that can produce realistic and engaging conversations on any topic. It was developed by OpenAI, a research organization dedicated to creating and promoting beneficial AI. ChatGPT has impressed many people in the tech industry, including one of the most influential figures: Bill Gates.
Bill Gates’ Confession
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and a philanthropist, admitted that he was skeptical about ChatGPT when he first saw it. He revealed his confession to Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, in an interview that was part of Gates’ podcast “Unconfuse Me with Bill Gates.”
“I was privileged to see your work as it evolved, and I was very skeptical,” Gates said to Altman. “I didn’t expect ChatGPT to get so good. It blows my mind.”
Gates said that he was especially astonished by the fact that ChatGPT could generate coherent and relevant responses without having a clear understanding of why it did so. Altman agreed that this was a mystery and compared it to the human brain, where we don’t know exactly how each neuron contributes to our thoughts and actions.
The interview, which lasted for half an hour, was shared first with Axios, a news website.
AI Regulation: A Hot Topic
Gates and Altman also discussed one of the most important and controversial issues related to AI: how to regulate it. AI regulation is a topic that governments around the world are grappling with, as AI becomes more powerful and pervasive in various domains.
Altman has been vocal about the need for AI regulation, but Gates challenged him to specify what he wanted. Altman said that he thought that the best approach was to regulate a few of the world’s most advanced AI systems, such as ChatGPT and its successors.
Altman said that he expected AI to progress rapidly, reaching systems with 100,000 or a million times the computing power of ChatGPT. He said that such systems could have a huge impact on society, geopolitics, and many other aspects of life.
Altman suggested that a possible model for AI regulation was the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which oversees nuclear weapons. He said that AI models could be inspected in a similar way as nuclear facilities, to ensure that they were safe and ethical.
Altman said that he had traveled around the world and talked to many heads of state and that he had found almost universal support for this idea. “That feels possible to me,” he said. “I wasn’t that sure before, but I did a big trip around the world this year and talked to heads of state in many of the countries that would need to participate in this, and there was almost universal support for it.”
However, Altman also acknowledged that AI regulation would not solve all the problems that AI could cause. He said that there would still be cases where smaller-scale AI systems would go wrong, sometimes with serious consequences. He said that AI regulation could help with the biggest risks, but not with all of them.
A Note on OpenAI’s Drama
The interview between Gates and Altman was recorded before a dramatic episode in OpenAI’s history. Altman was fired and then rehired as the CEO of OpenAI, after a dispute with some of the board members over the direction and governance of the organization.
The podcast episode began with an update from Altman, who told Gates that “It’s been so crazy” and that the drama “was like a real moment of growing up for us.”
A Chat on Music and Apps
Gates and Altman also had a casual chat on music and apps. Altman said that he liked classical music, while Gates said that he liked rock music. They both agreed that music was a great way to relax and enjoy life.
They also shared what apps they used the most. Altman said that he used Slack, a communication platform, the most. He joked that he wished he could say ChatGPT, implying that he would like to use it more often.
Gates said that his most-used app was Outlook, an email service. He said that he was an old-style email guy, and that he also used the browser a lot because he got most of his news from there.
Altman said that he did not count the browser as an app, and that he might use it more than Slack, but he was not sure. He said that he was on Slack all day.
